Europe's central bank just admitted what working people already feel at the pump: inflation driven by soaring energy costs won't retreat to target levels until mid-2027 at the earliest, locking ordinary households into years of elevated prices they didn't vote for and can't afford.
ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane told Swiss newspaper Le Temps that a "second wave of energy price increases" will produce "higher and more persistent inflation" before any relief arrives. The target rate of 2%? Don't hold your breath. Mid-2027 is the best-case scenario from the same institution that has been wrong on its forecasts before.
OilPrice reported the details that hit hardest: retail fuel prices across the European Union are running at all-time highs, with gasoline up 29% since February and diesel up a staggering 40% on a weighted average basis. August energy inflation in the eurozone hit 14.3%. Europe Says, by contrast, buried the retail price figures entirely, framing Lane's remarks as a routine monetary policy update rather than what they are — an admission that the continent's energy policy has failed the public.
Lane offered what he called "good news": so far, energy costs haven't spilled into electricity and other goods prices since February. But he conceded that the current wave of energy increases "is likely to put upward pressure on food prices, energy prices more broadly, including electricity, and goods prices in general." In other words, the spillover is coming. The ECB expects diesel prices to peak by October, but OilPrice notes that continued tightening of diesel supply — and the prospect of a U.S. export ban on the fuel — could blow up that timeline.
The pattern is clear. Europe chased green mandates and abandoned the energy independence that once kept prices stable. Now working people pay the bill at the grocery store and the filling station while central bankers push their recovery forecasts further down the road. America has the reserves, the workforce, and the infrastructure to be energy independent tomorrow. What's missing is the political will to tell the ideologues no.
The open question is whether anyone in Washington is watching Europe's self-inflicted crisis — or whether they're planning to import it here.
