Cracking the Code: The American system works
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Elections for me are a little like watching a Mountaineer or Steeler football game. We have our favorite teams. When they win, we are excited and all is good. When they lose, we can be depressed for several days or longer.
The difference is, in elections we can do more than cheer, we can vote. We can financially support or be a campaign worker for our favorite candidates running for office. Like in football, the winners celebrate. The losers try to figure out what they did wrong. Some learn, make corrections and come back to win the next time. Like in football, sometimes the winner gets overconfident from success and takes for granted the work required to continue to win.
Candidates once elected can forget the voters who elected them. They may work on their agenda, not that of the voters. Promises made during a campaign can be forgotten. If the voters remember promises made and not kept, that representative becomes like the overconfident football team and gets beaten in the next election.
As a voter, it is hard to remember everything. We need reporters and media with integrity who will hold elected officials accountable regardless of party.
In many countries, people take to the streets in protest when they don't like what their government has done. In some countries, protest is the people's only option. The USA has its share of protests. Most Americans have jobs to do and families to take care of. They prefer to use the ballot box like they did this week to show their disapproval and make a change, not just noise. The USA has federal elections every two years and some state and local elections almost every year.
Protests don't give elected officials a clear view of the total electorate. We saw this when the West Virginia Legislature was working on the initial Marcellus shale regulations. The first two public hearings had over 100 attendees. I estimated over 90% were noisy, passionate, anti-oil and gas, anti-fracking people. The legislative delegates may have mistakenly believed the antis were the majority. The majority was home watching TV with their families or at work.
At the third public hearing, average people showed up in work clothes to send a message. Over 600 squeezed into a gymnasium with many outside who couldn't get in. My friends attending told me the "antis" left. A ballot box and a large voter turnout is a much better and more convenient indicator of public sentiment.
Many pundits have an opinion of what happened on Tuesday. I'm not a pundit. This week was the same as at least the last four federal elections. Everyone listens to WIII-FM (What Is In It For Me).
People care about themselves and their families. The elections WERE ALL ABOUT THE ECONOMY!
In the middle of COVID in 2020, the economy was terrible. We had record unemployment. Gasoline was cheap, but we couldn't go many places. Airplanes were almost empty. We drove to Florida in January 2021 because we were afraid to fly. No problem finding hotels. Attendance at Disney was light. Biden beats Trump for president.
In 2022, Biden's focus on carbon drove up gasoline prices prior to the Ukraine war, which sent them even higher. High energy costs increased prices on everything. Republicans win the House of Representatives.
High gasoline prices and inflation continued into 2024, resulting in slow economic growth. Coal plants shut down to reduce carbon were replaced with intermittent renewable power. Blackouts occurred during extreme weather. Electric rates increased, NOT DUE TO DATA CENTERS, but due to less baseload power available during weather extremes. Additional power demand resulted from EVs, data centers and new manufacturing. Simple economics. Increased demand with reduced baseload supply, price of electricity had to increase. Trump beats Vice President Kamala Harris. Republicans take Congress.
In 2026, the Iran war takes 20% of world oil out of the market due to closure of the Strait of Hormuz. There is supply chain disruption of critical minerals and petroleum products, and other Middle Eastern products are restricted. Container rates skyrocket. Shipping from the Middle East and Western Asia becomes expensive and uncertain. Gasoline and diesel prices soar, raising prices of all goods and services. Economic growth continues, but so does inflation. Result is a Blue Wave. The American system works as it was meant to.
What now? The public expects elected officials to focus on the economy and affordability. If Democratic leadership in Washington starts with hearings and a witch hunt to satisfy their own egos instead of the public's needs, we may see protests. Blue control of Congress will be short-lived. What the public wants is clear.
The Iran war and blockage of the Strait of Hormuz made something else clear: THE WORLD ECONOMY RUNS on OIL and NATURAL GAS. When war closed the strait, the world immediately lost 20% of its oil supply. In October 2025, oil was $64 a barrel. Today it is $100 a barrel. The point is, the world does not have another fuel to replace oil, even after a 50% increase in world oil price.
Shale Crescent USA is working with Visual Capitalists to help our prospects wanting to manufacture in the USA better understand energy in the USA. From EIA data showing U.S. energy consumption in 2025 from ALL sources, we learned there is an energy transition. But not the transition we expected. In 1885, coal surpassed renewables as the USA's leading energy source. In 1950, petroleum surpassed coal. Today, 37% of U.S. energy comes from petroleum, and 36% comes from natural gas, which is growing at a rate where it will pass petroleum in 2026 or 2027. Nuclear power, coal and renewables each contribute 9%. Oil prices impact the entire economy. Consumer prices can't go down until oil prices go down. Our new members in Congress need to understand. We need more oil and gas, not less, to create the affordability Americans need. Congress and the president must work together for the good of all Americans.
If they don't understand, the voters will make them understand. The American system works!
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Greg Kozera, gkozera@shalecrescentusa.com, is the director of marketing for Shale Crescent USA. He is a professional engineer with a master's in environmental engineering and over 40 years of experience in the energy industry. Greg is a leadership expert, high school soccer coach, professional speaker and author of four books and many published articles.