US struggles with global energy security champion role

The country faces a very particular version of the ‘energy trilemma’

The so-called energy trilemma—finding a balance between security, affordability and sustainability in how we access and use energy—has filled many column inches in recent years, while the tragic events unfolding in Ukraine have brought a renewed focus on the first of the three pillars in recent months. In Washington, the Biden administration faces an especially challenging version, in that its contribution to energy security is increasingly required to be global, while its actions have ramifications on the crude price benchmarks against which most of the world’s oil sales are indexed. And President Biden must navigate these global roles while satisfying a domestic environmental lobby that in