The Age of Error: How Energy Policy Went Off Track

Rupert Darwall, author of the forthcoming book The Age of Error: Net Zero and the Destruction of the West, joins us on The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism. Darwall takes us back to a pivotal moment in 2006 when the G8, alongside Vladimir Putin, endorsed an energy security framework rooted in oil and gas investment. But just three years later, the West veered away from that realism in favor of green recovery policies—marking, in Darwall’s view, the beginning of a dangerous era of energy misjudgment.

Darwall argues that the dominant "climate catastrophe" narrative has undermined geopolitical strategy, weakened the West's competitiveness, and ceded ground to authoritarian regimes like China. In this conversation, he breaks down the consequences of the net-zero mindset, contrasts the diverging paths ahead for the U.S. and Europe, and lays out a compelling case for energy realism as the foundation of Western renewal.