Though it’s half a world away, the war in the Mideast — the United States and Israel attacking Iran, Israel attacking Lebanon, and Iran attacking the entire neighborhood — is causing the price of fuel to increase here at home.
Locally, gasoline has increased by 11 percent, about 34 cents a gallon. Diesel is up by 57 cents a gallon. For a 15-gallon tank, that equates to a $50 fill-up; $65 for diesel.
It all adds up. In the past week, Americans have spent an additional $95 million at the gas pump, according to GasBuddy, a national tracking service.
The price hikes are another example of our global economy. Crude oil is a worldwide commodity. When the safety of oil tankers navigating the Strait of Hormuz is threatened, their cargo becomes more valuable. By Friday, trading for domestic crude had risen 30 percent.
Some U.S. economists are telling us not to worry.
“We’re very lucky here in the United States. Because of the shale revolution, the fact that the U.S. has become the world’s largest oil producer of 14 million barrels a day, and a very significant [natural] gas producer, we’re pretty self-sufficient. We should be relatively insulated from what’s happening elsewhere.”
That’s Dan Pickering of Pickering Energy Partners speaking on Monday evening’s PBS NewsHour program.
Also in our pocket is the rise of wind- and solar-generated energy, which eases our dependence on oil.
Of course, the longer the wars last, the more exposed we are. Even if the fighting stops posthaste, experts predict oil prices will remain elevated for the rest of the year.
IT’S UNNERVING how analysts brush off these “modest” increases.
While they’re nowhere close to the two energy crises of the 1970s precipitated by the Arab oil embargo and the Iranian revolution that resulted in gas prices jumping as much as 40 percent, today’s increases are still significant to a wide swath of Americans.
For the poor, gasoline consumes a higher share of their earnings than those who can afford not to pay attention. Because transportation is essential to getting to their jobs, that $50 tankful means they’ll have to cut back elsewhere.
At over $4 a gallon for diesel, the highest price in two years, the increase could also affect the price of goods, experts say, because diesel-fueled trucks transport everything from groceries, lumber, electronics and clothing across the country. An estimated 70 percent of U.S. freight is transported by trucks.
The biggest cost of war, though, is to life and limb. Already six U.S. service men and women have been killed in the war. Of the estimated 1,000 fatalities so far, the majority have occurred in Iran, with others recorded in Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon and Israel.
In all its manifestations, war leaves no one unscathed. That’s true the world over.
