🧵 Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz isn't just an oil crisis. Here are 9 other commodities being hit — and why focusing on WTI and Brent is the wrong benchmark. This matters for food, tech, and manufacturing worldwide. #Hormuz #GlobalTrade
www.energyempire.fm/episodes/no-...
We just launched Energy Empire 🎙️
First 4 episodes are live:
🗽 Who is Jigar Shah? w/ Phil Radford
🗽 The American-Made Solar Billionaire w/ Dean Solon
🗽 A Decade as Solar’s Top Lobbyist w/ Abby Hopper
🗽 Why Wars No Longer Move Oil Markets w/ Kevin Book
@jigarshahdc.bsky.social
Over his more than two decades as a clean energy entrepreneur and commentator, Jigar Shah has established himself as one of the most prominent voices calling for a more decentralized, flexible grid.
He sat down with New York Focus for a Q&A:
nysfocus.com/2026/02/28/v...
With Bill Mckibben and Jigar Shah
This thread is about data centers having a better relationship with the community/ratepayers. They have to put in diesel anyway, but the better approach is to sign contracts with the community to host batteries for a BYOC contract.
NG would be able good grid support.
www.voltus.co/press/bring-...
To be clear these are fully grid connected projects. No one is doing offgrid. So load factor doesn’t matter. They are looking at grid capacity.
I’m working with a number of electric utilities right now and I think what you’re saying is exactly right which is that they need natural gas 100 to 200 hours a year to be able to solve contingency conditions
Internationally I would look at WRI and RMI.
Really amazing to see how quickly @deployaction.bsky.social has made a big difference.
We can grow load and win AI while unlocking the full potential of our grid and actually lowering electricity bills for everyone.
The @IEA projected that the world would use ~105 million barrels per day in 2026.
With the disruption in the Strait we are already predicted to go down to an average of 100mbpd for 2026.🧵
We have 60 GVA transformers ready to ship to the USA with 18 month delivery times from India.
www.whalesbook.com/news/English...
Right now folks are just battling rationing.
They don’t have time to think about emissions.
We are in a humanitarian crisis. Everyone with skills needs to contribute to identifying local resources to deliver solutions at scale.
Yup leave the fuel oil system in place. Put in a heat pump and only use the fuel oil when temperatures go below 20 degrees F.
rmi.org/lower-bills-...
About 50% of all vehicles that are manufactured globally are traded.
~25–35 million vehicles per year are imported by countries with no meaningful auto manufacturing.
This is all about EV charging infrastructure. Most of these countries are 50Hz and have level 2 at home/work.
India has a plan to transition which is accelerating now that it isn’t available but it wasn’t in the Nationally Determined Contribution plan at a high level.
Bottom line is that the technologies exist, but the workforce, supply chain, and technical assistance are real barriers. There will be extraordinary pain. We are in a humanitarian crisis in Asia and Africa. That will spread around the world.
But change requires motivation...
There does seem to be real enduring motivation every country to meet its 2030 goals for national and economic security. But I don’t see us hitting the 2030 goals which would be ~13 mb/d saved starting from ~105mbpd.
Maybe we hit ~100mbpd but that would require lots of coordinated assistance.
🧪 Green hydrogen & clean chemicals: ~0.1 mb/d
The technologies are just ramping up. There are some good ones in fertilizer, clean chemicals, and other areas.
Low-emission ammonia is under 1% of global supply. Green methanol barely exists at scale.
These are post 2030 solutions.
🏭 Industrial electrification & clean power: ~1 mb/d
Oil's role in electricity generation is already small. Rationing could get the rest…
Industrial efficiency gets another ~0.5 mb/d — but steel, cement, and chemicals are the hardest sectors
Progress here is essentially structural.
🔥Heat pumps replacing heating oil:~1 mb/d
This is really about offsetting fuel oil heat pump targets. Heat pump sales outsold gas furnaces in the US for the 4th year running in 2025 — the trend is real.
But few folks have really gone after fuel oil in heating (except Maine)
⚡ Energy efficiency (buildings, transport, industry)
In an aggressive scenario ~5 mb/d could be achieved.
We have the technologies but the sector is not glamorous. Building codes/industrial efficiency programs save money but is never prioritized. It's boring. It works. It's being underfunded.
🚗 EVs & transport electrification is the single biggest lever.
In an aggressive scenario we would save 6 mb/d vs the baseline. We have already achieved ~1.5 mb/d in 2025.
Given what is happening in the Strait and the Global EV industry, we have a shot at 200m cumulative EVs by 2030.
The base case from the NDCs had us with roughly flat oil consumption of ~102 mb/d (IEA STEPS — essentially flat) using current policies.
If all of the most aggressive pledges were met we would drop to ~87–90 mb/d (IEA APS, now discontinued)
www.industrialinfo.com/iirenergy/in....
Many countries submitted update Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) plans this month. In them they worked to calculate how much oil/gas they thought they could profitably reduce while maintaining economic growth.
These are plans that were carefully developed and now there is a reason to do it.
The @IEA projected that the world would use ~105 million barrels per day in 2026.
With the disruption in the Strait we are already predicted to go down to an average of 100mbpd for 2026.🧵
The bottom line: this isn't just an energy crisis. Supply chains will take until the next Presidential election to get back to formal.
Freight costs, insurance premiums, and food prices are rising globally. The most vulnerable countries — especially in Asia and Africa — are bearing the burden.
⬛ GRAPHITE: A critical mineral for battery anodes and the green energy transition. Disruptions to Middle East trade routes are slowing the supply chain for EVs and renewable energy storage — at exactly the wrong time. #GreenEnergy #EVs
🔵 HELIUM: Qatar is one of the world's largest helium suppliers — and Iranian strikes on its LNG infrastructure have cascading effects on helium production. Used in MRI machines, semiconductors, and scientific research. Hard to replace. #Helium #Semiconductors
⚗️ METHANOL: ~33% of global seaborne methanol trade flows through Hormuz. It's a key feedstock for resins, coatings, and plastics. Disruption here ripples through entire chemical value chains. #Chemicals #Petrochemicals
🪙 ALUMINUM: The Middle East is a major primary aluminum producer. With the strait blocked, access to alumina — the raw input — is severely limited. The US, Turkey, and Japan are key buyers. Premiums are surging in Europe and Asia. #Aluminum #Manufacturing