I'm John Batchel. I welcome my colleague and friend, Professor Richard Epstein of the Civitas Institute, writing most recently about the crisis in the Middle East, which is now a crisis globally. The headline from the London Financial Times tells the story. World faces greatest ever energy threat from Iran war, IEA Chief Warns. Other headlines run to detail about

the Iran War now making the infrastructure of the Middle East at risk for natural gas and for

oil. One statistic tells the story of the wider war. In the south of France, in these

last hours, the price of a gallon of diesel translated into American dollars is now $7.70 at the

pump if the farmers can find it. One little village only has one pump filled, the other one is

empty, meaning those farmers i have to

drive 15 miles to the near 15 kilometers to the nearest village to fill up that's a long way on a

tractor that's one crisis that will mean will lead to political winds in paris but you can imagine that's happening all across Europe,

all across Asia, because while America has abundant energy, we are an energy superpower.

China, India, France, Germany, Britain do not. And there are reasons for that, but the fact is

the war is upon us.

Professor, a very good evening to, you have written of these matters in anticipation of a

crisis. Well, it's here. The price of a barrel of oil is now so widely swinging during the day,

I can't even guess, but it did touch 119 in these last 24 hours.

At the same time, natural gas, not only the prices doubled in a month or a week,

but there will be shortages because the Qatari air field, oil field,

gas field is now shut down severe damage done by Iranian drones and missiles.

You've anticipated this crisis for some time. Let's begin in Europe. Did Europe anticipate the

crisis? Are they ready to respond? Good evening to you. The European, generally speaking, have been hopeless on this.

For them, the single greatest peril is to deal with the issue of global warming, which they

attributable to the emissions from fossil fuels. I regard that threat as being wildly overstated

if you actually look at the observed numbers instead of the alarmist predictions. And so what happens is

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