You’re paying around $4.15 for a gallon of gas right now. You can thank the Iran war for roughly a buck of that.
But here’s the bigger story — the one most people are missing while they wince at the pump.
While the U.S. doubled down on fossil fuels, China cornered the market on almost everything that’s likely to replace them. Solar panels. Batteries. Electric vehicles.
And the Iran war just handed Beijing its best sales pitch of the decade.
The Associated Press laid it out plainly: The global energy shock triggered by the U.S.-Israel war with Iran is accelerating a shift toward clean technology — and China dominates that industry.
Meanwhile, Washington is moving in the opposite direction. President Donald Trump’s administration and the Republican Congress just gutted most of the tax credits that made American clean energy competitive.
Here’s what that looks like on the ground — and what it means for your wallet.
1. China makes more than 70% of the world’s EVs
That’s not a typo. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), China accounts for over 70% of global electric vehicle manufacturing.
Every major automaker on the planet now leans on Chinese supply chains, Chinese engineers, or Chinese factories to build EVs at scale. We aren’t catching up. We’re falling further behind each quarter.
2. And China makes about 85% of the world’s batteries
According to the same IEA data, China produces roughly 85% of global battery cells.
Think about what a battery is. It’s the heart of an EV, the storage system for a solar home, and the backup for the electric grid itself.
China didn’t just grab a piece of the energy future. It grabbed the engine.
3. Its clean-tech exports just hit a record
In December alone, China’s exports of solar panels, batteries, and electric cars hit a record of almost $22.3 billion, according to data from the think tank Ember.
Most of that product is flowing into Southeast Asia and Europe. Markets we used to compete for. Not anymore.
4. Washington killed your solar tax credit
Remember the 30% federal tax credit homeowners got for installing solar? It’s gone.
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law in July 2025, the residential clean energy tax credit was terminated as of December 31, 2025. Systems had to be installed on or before that date to qualify.
If you didn’t install by the deadline, you missed it. For families looking to escape volatile utility bills, that’s a straight-up tax hike on clean energy.
5. Wind and utility-scale solar got the same treatment
The big projects that power entire regions? They got hit too.
The law accelerates the phase-out of tax credits for wind and solar projects that begin construction after July 5, 2026. Those projects must be placed in service by the end of 2027 to claim the credit.
Translation: A panicked fire sale for developers, and far fewer clean megawatts on the grid after that.
6. Trump said, ‘drill, baby, drill.’ Xi said energy is national security.
Over a decade ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping merged energy security with national security. He poured state resources into solar, batteries, and EVs.
The U.S. made the opposite bet. Trump’s energy strategy, summed up in his own words as “drill, baby, drill,” favors fossil fuels over renewables.
One bet depends on Middle East stability. The other depends on sunshine and silicon.
Guess which one the Iran war just exposed as fragile.
7. The Iran war made fossil fuels more expensive — not cheaper
Here’s where it hits home. The average U.S. gas price has climbed past $4 per gallon, up more than 30% since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February. Diesel is up more than 40%, topping $5 a gallon.
It gets uglier. Gasoline jumped 21.2% in a single month — the largest one-month pump-price increase since 1967. That spike alone helped push annual inflation to 3.3%.
And the trickle-down is already here. The U.S. Postal Service is enacting an 8% fuel surcharge on packages starting April 26. Amazon added a temporary 3.5% fuel-and-logistics surcharge for third-party sellers. United, Southwest, and JetBlue have all hiked fees.
Your grocery bill is next.
So what do you do?
You can’t end the Iran war. You can’t revive the solar tax credit by yourself. But you can protect your household.
Start by cutting what you send to the oil market. That means getting serious about the simple things that lower your home energy bill. It also means taking a hard look at the most affordable electric cars on the market — even without the federal credit, the math still works for many commuters.
And it means recognizing the bigger picture. The country that wins the next energy economy won’t be the one with the most oil. It’ll be the one with the most batteries, panels, and chips.
Right now, that’s not us.
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