Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Sunday, March 22, 2026

JD Vance bragged that the US isn't as impacted by the shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz as other countries ("'Overseas' doing worse with petrol prices than USA: Trump's vice president," 9News Australia).  But it's a global economy ("Iran war will scar the global economy," Financial Times). 

Bloomberg notes the Administration is looking at the wrong impact, as oil is used in so many other products ("The White House Is Using the Wrong Oil Price for the Iran War"). 

Also see, especially the comments where I update with other articles, "Oil dependent economies are vulnerable at all times, but especially during wartime in the Mideast | From energy dominance to energy vulnerability."

Other countries will hardly look upon the US with favor.  The Toronto Star, "How can Canada protect itself amid a global energy crisis?," lists some of the effects on Canada.

A friend's brother runs a grain elevator operation in Montana, including the sale of fertilizer in large quantities.  He's getting stiffed on deliveries.

From the Star:

Yet Canadian consumers are hostage to a volatile world price for oil and gas. And the crisis extends beyond oil. 

  • It is a threat to world food security with looming shortages of the natural gas and other key ingredients of fertilizer produced by Persian Gulf States. As they plant for this year’s harvest, Canadian farmers can choose to absorb higher costs for fuel and fertilizer or cut back and suffer lower crop yields. Either way, food prices, already high, will rise further. 
  •  Options for protecting Canadian consumers include the cap on pump prices that has been imposed by South Korea and other countries. 
  •  China is among major oil consumers that are curtailing fuel exports to hoard domestic supplies. Brazil is cutting federal taxes on fuel and will tax oil exports to offset the revenue loss. 
  • The Philippines has mandated four-day work weeks to conserve energy. 
  • Some Asia-Pacific factories are scaling back production to preserve fuel and spare themselves higher production costs. 
  • In a worst-case scenario, there will be more factory slowdowns and shutdowns in the global supply chain. 
  • If prolonged, that disruption will raise the price of Canada’s imports, risking a resurgence of inflation. 
  • Canada would be self-sufficient in oil and gas if it chose to redirect a large portion of its exports to refineries in Central and Eastern Canada that rely on imported oil. That would require construction of an east-west pipeline.
  • Canada could also build strategic reserves of oil and LNG readily available to Canadian refineries to keep fuel prices under control. Canada is the only G7 country without a strategic oil reserve to draw upon in times of crisis.
  • One of the few certainties of the moment is that Iran can bottle up Middle East fuel and fertilizer supplies whenever it chooses after the current conflict ends. The Economist warned of further Iranian attacks on the world economy in coming years, saying that “disruption of energy markets will come and go with geopolitical tensions, especially if Iran concludes that it needs a nuclear weapon to be safe.”

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