Alicia Meehan, Campus Carrier deputy news editor
Gas prices have risen significantly since the United States and Israel began bombing Iran on Feb. 28. After the bombing began, Iran closed the strait of Hormuz, through which 25% of all natural gas trade passes.
Visiting Associate Professor of International Affairs Vincent Gawronski explained that oil values and stock market values are connected to global conflict.
“Prices are going to be going up for a while,” Gawronski said. “Even though a two-week ceasefire has been agreed on as of [April 8], there’s no agreement, no treaty signed. The war has not ended.”
Gawronski said that oil prices rise fast and fall slowly. Natural gas prices and the Strait of Hormuz blockade are also connected to fertilizer prices. Fertilizer prices impact farmers heavily due to their small profit margins.
“A lot of farmers have gone bankrupt,” Gawronski said. “The tariffs hurt them, and now all the input prices for everything they do have gone up. It mostly has to do with fuel prices.”
Iran’s blockade on the Strait of Hormuz directly impacts gas prices and indirectly raises the cost of transportation for most goods.
Junior Alyssa Lawson lives 40 miles from campus and commutes an hour to and from Berry. She said that in previous, years it cost $25 to fill up her car’s 10-gallon tank. Since the beginning of the war in Iran, she said the price has increased significantly, even taking into consideration that she has a car with a bigger fuel tank.
“This year, the car that I have now takes 15 gallons,” Lawson said. “And I filled it up last night, and it was $45, so it basically doubled.”
She said that while she can afford to pay for gas despite the increase, most of her paycheck will go towards it.
“I live at home with my parents, so I don’t pay any other bills, but the only money I have is going towards gas in a car,” Lawson said. “So that’s not very exciting.”
The gas price at RaceTrac on Martha Berry Highway has seen a dramatic increase since the beginning of the war.
Gawronski voiced support for green technology and said that the United States relies too heavily on fossil fuels.
“I’m a big proponent of moving to solar and electric energy, but big oil and fossil fuels have a hold on this economy,” Gawronski said. “We have a president and a political party that is in bed with fossil fuels.”
Gawronski said that China is getting a leg up against the US by investing in clean energy.
“While China is investing and subsidizing green technologies and working to become energy independent, we’re going in the opposite direction,” Gawronski said. “Which is not good because we’re going to have to play catch-up at some point.”
Lawson said that the war on Iran is doing more harm than is necessary for the situation. She feels that attacking the country that the world gets part of its gas supply from was not a smart move.
“I think it’s stupid,” Lawson said. “If we were getting gas from a specific place and now we can’t get it to us, you’re harming your citizens more than you’re improving their lives.”
Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Adrienne Ernst explained that the oil tanker ships that came through the Strait of Hormuz move very slowly. The last shipment of oil that came through the strait has yet to reach the United States.
Countries closest to the Middle East have already received their last shipment and are now experiencing large fuel shortages. Ernst said that countries in Africa and Asia are beginning to reschedule their workweeks to conserve gas as much as possible.
“They’re encouraging people to only come in four days a week,” Ernst said. “They are changing schools in some countries, so you only come to school four days a week. They’re doing all that to try and ration their supplies and deal with some of the increase in cost as well.”
The United States economy relies heavily on oil and fossil fuels. According to Ernst, the impact of the war will bring about long-lasting problems for the economy.
“It’s something to watch out for because we are so dependent on fossil fuels,” Ernst said. “So having a change in the supply has these rippling effects on our economy, on our society.”
Ernst warned that even if the war ends and the strait re-opens the global oil trade, the world economy will have trouble returning to the norm prior to the bombing in February.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the worst of it yet,” Ernst said. “Even if trade were open and the war were over, it’s going to take a long time to get back to where we were before the war.”