
← Consider This from NPR
What's the war in Iran costing American consumers?
March 9, 2026·9m
Americans are paying more for gas than they were a week ago. On Sunday, the price of oil hit $118 a barrel. It's since come down from those highs, but remains up sharply from the pre-war price of $70. The price is being pushed up by disruption to oil supply out of the Persian Gulf – The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, typically handles around 20 million barrels of oil a day – close to a fifth of global oil consumption. But the war has brought tanker traffic in the Strait to basically a standstill.