The arguments that most people accept for government intervention in energy, whether in the name of energy access, national security, or climate change mitigation, all share the same general premise: that energy is too important to be left to the whims of the free market.

But this year, the world has been thrust into an energy crisis, not by the free market or any natural disaster, but by politics. What 2022 has demonstrated is that the conventional wisdom is backward. In reality, energy is far too important to be left in the hands of government.

There is no free market in energy. That's something even many critics of the free market will admit. For as long as the energy sector has existed, the government has regulated it. In the early days, the reasons presented for intervention usually revolved around how vital energy is for the nation's economy. Then, in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson created the US Fuel Administration, which seized control of the energy supply to bolster the government's war effort. After the war, intervention in the name of geopolitical strategy continued. More recently, there's been a push for a state-enforced transition away from fossil fuels to attempt to reverse climate change.

Today the U.S. government subjects energy companies to strict regulations, grants billions in subsidies to energy producers, controls the rights to drill oil-rich federal land, and even hoards hundreds of millions of barrels of oil for strategic purposes. Many foreign countries, such as Russia, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, the Netherlands, and China, either have totally state-controlled energy or energy industries dominated by state-owned corporations. In the US and globally, energy is controlled by government, and the results have proven disastrous.