Lauren Flanagan
Recent conflicts in Iran have put a spotlight on the vulnerabilities of fossil fuels. Over the last few weeks, we’ve watched the Strait of Hormuz close, cutting off 20% of the world’s oil supply and resulting in a 55% jump in oil prices. Every industry is feeling the impact of this. But no sector is more exposed than defense. The U.S. military is the largest single institutional consumer of oil on the planet, and right now, that's not just an energy problem. It's a strategic one.
Estimates report that the United States armed forces consume approximately 4.6 billion gallons of fuel per year. If the Pentagon were a country, it would rank among the top 60 oil-consuming nations on earth, ahead of Portugal, Peru, and most of the world's mid-sized economies. That demand doesn't pause during a geopolitical crisis. If anything, it surges. What the Hormuz disruption exposed is a fundamental issue: the machines that project force are the same machines most vulnerable to fuel supply disruption.
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