EU President Uses Iran War To Double Down On Plan To ‘Decarbonize’ Continent

European Union President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday that the conflict between the United States and Iran “confirmed” the EU’s plans to “decarbonize” the continent.

President Donald Trump announced the Strait of Hormuz would be closed to ships that paid Iran a “toll” for passage through the maritime chokepoint early Sunday, with the blockade starting at 10:00 a.m. Monday Eastern time. Von der Leyen said in the statement that Europe was “paying a high price” for its need for fossil fuels, citing the situation in the Strait of Hormuz.

“The Strait of Hormuz is essentially closed, and immediately citizens feel the impact at the gas station, in the supermarket and on the household bills. So what we are seeing in the Middle East is not some distant crisis, but in a world in which everything is connected, the effects are direct and they are immediate and this is, as I said, the second fossil fuel crisis in just a few years,” von der Leyen said. “There’s one thing that all these events make clear we are paying a very high price for our overdependency on fossil fuels and the grim reality for our continent is fossil fuel energy will remain the most expensive option in the years to come.”

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Oil prices have climbed from the market’s $67.02 close on Feb. 27,