Build Fortress North America

April 13, 2026

The Israeli-U.S. war against Iran began on February 28, 2026, and launched history’s biggest energy crisis. Its regime has been bombarded, but it blocks the Strait of Hormuz, damaging the global economy and sending prices for oil and commodities sky high. On April 11, talks between Iran and the U.S. to end the conflict failed within hours. The next day, President Trump reversed strategy by announcing that the U.S. Navy would block the Strait of Hormuz after badgering Iran for weeks to remove its oil blockade. Oil prices again soared, and the world hurtles toward a recession. The administration tries to stop the world’s worst petroleum villains, but a better solution is already at hand: to create Fortress North America by harnessing the continent’s energy resources to provide fuel at fair prices at home and export income from abroad. Energy is the lifeblood of all nations, and North America’s resource endowment represents the ultimate competitive and geopolitical advantage. It could replace the world’s petro-state pariahs, notably Iran and Russia, who use their inflated oil income to wage global wars, terrorism, and tyranny.

Hormuz Strait: World’s ultimate chokepoint

I’ve written about this initiative before, but it makes more sense than ever. The United States and Canada should formalize a binational fossil fuel arrangement, or grid, that Mexico could also join. The three countries could be energy self-sufficient, lower emissions, keep costs down, and generate surplus oil and LNG that could be exported to Europe and other allies. Until that happens, the world will be held hostage by Russia or Middle East oil delivered through Hormuz.

This is not pie in the sky. Energy trade among the “Three Amigos” of North America is already well advanced, and the goal would be to fully integrate their industries. They could establish and regulate a reasonable domestic price for oil and natural gas based on supply and demand, not based on outside factors or OPEC’s dictates. Like power utilities, domestic energy prices would be set to provide reasonable returns to producers as well as to provide fair prices for North America’s consumers, industries, farmers, and developers. Exports to others would cost more and would only be for allies.

This made-in-North-America pricing would be the cornerstone for economic growth indefinitely and would also liberate importers around the world from supporting terrorist regimes and soaring prices. Put another way, the continent’s fossil fuel and energy sector would be run like a regulated utility. It would provide reasonable domestic prices and limit exports to allies only, not enemies or malign actors. (Venezuela, now controlled by Washington, along with its vast heavy oil reserves, would be a logical partner in this scheme.)

Some argue that fossil fuels should be banned altogether and replaced with renewables. But renewables must be supplemented with nuclear or fossil fuels because the wind doesn’t always blow, the sun doesn’t always shine, and wind and solar surpluses cannot be stored efficiently. Besides, the reality is that fossil fuels will be around for decades and are essential for the production of petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and plastics.

Map of the oil and gas yielding basins in the three countries in French

The U.S. is already the world’s largest LNG exporter (with half the emissions of oil), but Canada has so far blown opportunities under its previous administration due to its environmental radicalism. However, its new Prime Minister has been forced to scrap his rabid anti-fossil fuel stances because the country’s economic future depends entirely on developing resources. The Trump regime wants more oil pipelines from Canada to the U.S., and a large project has just been announced involving another 1 million barrels a day. Another pipeline has been approved that would carry 1 million barrels a day of bitumen from the Alberta oil sands to British Columbia for delivery by ship to Japan. Canada should now build dozens more LNG plants, including some that were offered by Japan, Germany, and Spain in recent years, and were turned down by the moronic regime of Justin Trudeau.

Geopolitically, North America is the world’s only trading bloc comprised of resource giants. In 2025, it produced 20.24 million barrels of oil a day (13.58 mbd U.S., 4.94 mpd Canada, and 1.72 mbd Mexico). And, as mentioned, the U.S. has become, since Russia’s war against Ukraine and Europe, the world’s biggest LNG producer. Production of both oil and gas could be easily doubled in a handful of years if these governments get in gear.

The three can meet all their own needs and provide energy to Europe, Japan, and other friendly nations. This transformation can be rapid, as was already demonstrated when, in a handful of years amid concerns about Russia’s gas grip, the United States restructured its gas industry. America now has more than 170 LNG processing plants and ports and is the world’s biggest LNG exporter. Canada has one LNG facility but should build dozens more.

Crude oil reserves globally. CIA

Natural gas reserves, the top five countries:

The Top Five gas reserves nations, Canada is 19th, but its potential is vast.

The U.S. is a fossil fuel giant. The Canadian province of Alberta alone has one of the world’s biggest oil and natural gas endowments, and Saskatchewan has critical minerals and as much uranium, used in nuclear reactors, as does Kazakhstan or Australia. In addition, Mexico has critical minerals and sizeable oil and gas reserves. The continent’s resource base, harnessed to its know-how, capital, and research and development expertise (to reduce emissions and to develop small module nuclear reactors), could clean up the world and put Russia and its petro-state sidekicks out of business.

Providing an alternative to the bad guys out there is a better strategy than fighting wars against religious crazies, fuelled by oil money from their victims. Trump now blocks the Hormuz Strait to pressure his allies and get Iran to back down, but simultaneously creates windfall profits for them. The best solution is for the United States, Canada, and Mexico to unite into an energy superpower and bankrupt the world’s pernicious petro-states.