April 27, 2026
LAS VEGAS, NV – The President of the United States of America is governed by Executive Orders (EOs), but the vast majority of them need the approval of Congress or they are not legally Constitutional. If Congress does not intervene to stop an EO then the checks and balances that keep our democracy in balance erode. Congressional members are allowing the president to defy the Constitution, even though they too take the Constitutional Oath—to uphold our democracy from threats foreign and domestic.
As we wait on EO legal determinations they have gone into effect. One EO issued on the day he was Inaugurated changed our energy and environmental policies to favor the fossil fuel industry.
“Our brave military should never be sent to war for oil and gas. But that presidential EO declared that we need more fossil fuels for our national security including from our national parks. We are living in uncertain insecure times due in large part to EO led policies,” Pat Spearman, former Nevada State Senator, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel retired, Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) National Leadership Taskforce. “The war in Iran has led to the instability of the oil market that is now pushing us toward a recession. Only clean energy can bring us energy security. The last thing we need is to become more dependent on oil and gas. Fossil fuel greenhouse gasses have fueled not only global warming but also wars where nations are in pursuit of more oil and gas. The people struggling for survival in Ukraine, Venezuela, and Iran would prefer being at peace. When I served in the military and as a state senator, I took an oath to uphold the Constitution from threats foreign and domestic. I continue, along with other fellow veterans, to abide by our oath. When threat multipliers happen, too often it’s Americans in uniform who are asked to put things right. That’s not right. Too many have suffered, some with the ultimate sacrifice because of fossil fuel wars.”
Soon after the start of the US-Israel war on Iran on February 28, authorities in Tehran implemented the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the only waterway out of the Gulf, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies were shipped. The near-shutdown sent global oil and gas prices soaring, yet Iran has continued to export its own energy products through the waterway. Even at the conservative estimate of $90 a barrel, Iran has earned at least $4.97bn over the past month from its ongoing oil exports.
Despite the clear undeniable science of greenhouse gas making the crisis worse, the Trump administration is working to ramp up fossil fuel production, which endangers the environment, increases extreme weather, threatens public health and hurts disadvantaged and environmental justice communities the most and makes us energy insecure. It’s a national security issue.
More than 21,000 deaths in the United States from 1999 to 2023 were recorded as being related to heat. Last year, there were more than a hundred days when temperatures remained over 100 degrees last summer in Las Vegas. Those who are most vulnerable to heat-related health effects include working-class, low-income, and Latino and Black communities.
The average Nevadan family spent almost $700 a month on their utility bill in 2025 that calculation is skyrocketing the longer the war continues. We’ve witnessed prices go up and up, from gas to groceries mainly due to the price of fossil fuels going up because of our actions in the middle east.
“Having to breathe in heavily polluted cancer-causing air just because you live near a factory, congested roadway or shipping route has to stop. Environmental justice communities need to be lifted up and out of the dark ages of systemic racism. Clean energy can make it happen, while making the U.S. energy secure. There is a fierce urgency to act. Clean energy is energy security,” added Pat Spearman, former Nevada State Senator, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel retired, Elected Officials to Protect America (EOPA) National Leadership Taskforce. “Before the war in Iran the U.S. was paying $81 billion protecting oil interests around the world every year—$81 billion. On the other hand, renewables are thecheapest form of power today, reduce our carbon footprint, create jobs, protect public health, lift up environmental justice communities, and are critical to energy security.”
According to a 2018 analysis by Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), the U.S. military spent approximately $81 billion annually to protect global oil supplies, particularly in the Middle East. This figure represented about 16 percent of the Department of Defense’s base budget at the time, translating to an implicit subsidy of roughly $0.28 per gallon of gasoline.Iran’s oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz account for about 80 percent of its total oil exports. From March 15 to April 14, it exported 55.22 million barrels of oil.
