World Body Urges Lower Speed Limits, Increased Telework To Help Tame Surging Energy Prices

An international agency partly funded by America is offering governments and households an environmentalist’s dream list of steps to help ease the energy crisis created by the Hormuz Strait blockage, including reduced speed limits, increased telework, and greater use of public transportation. The demand-side measures, many of which have proven unpopular in the past, are unlikely to sit well with a Trump administration that is focused more on increasing supply, including an announcement late Friday that it is lifting an embargo on the sale of Iranian oil already at sea.The Paris-based International Energy Agency, established in response to the 1973 oil crisis and comprising mainly developed countries, has for months been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration over its stated goal of helping member countries to reach net-zero fossil fuel emissions by 2050.However the relationship warmed this month after the IEA worked with the administration to coordinate the release by its 32 members of 400 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves. That includes 172 million barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.“The IEA’s coordination with the US government and with our other Member governments has been excellent,” an IEA spokesman, Lee Bailey, said at the time.Iran’s blockage of the Hormuz Strait has boosted world oil prices by as much as 50 percent, with the benchmark Brent Crude trading at more than $112 a barrel as of Saturday amid the threat of worldwide fuel shortages and a new wave of inflation in America and abroad.“The war in the Middle East is creating a major energy crisis, including the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. In the absence of a swift resolution, the impacts on energy markets and economies are set to become more and more severe,” the IEA executive director, Fatih Birol, said in a statement accompanying a new report released Friday.“Today’s report provides a menu of immediate and concrete measures that can be taken on the demand side by governments, businesses, and households to shelter consumers from the impacts of this crisis.”Many of the 10 measures reflect long-standing goals of climate advocates and recall steps recommended during a national energy shortage in 1977 by President Carter, who attracted widespread ridicule with the suggestion that Americans lower their thermostats to 65 degrees and put on sweaters.The IEA-recommended steps include:– Work from home where possible;– Reduce highway speed limits by at least 10 km/h (6 mph);– Encourage public transport;– Alternate private car access to roads in large cities on different days;– Increase car sharing and adopt efficient driving practices;– Avoid air travel where alternative options exist.“While the demand-side measures highlighted in the report cannot match the scale of disrupted supply, they can play a meaningful role in lowering costs for consumers, reducing markets strains and preserving fuels for essential uses until normal flows resume,” the IEA statement says.“Governments can lead by example through public sector measures, regulatory action and targeted incentives while ensuring that support for consumers is timed appropriately and focused on those most in need.”While unlikely to embrace the IEA recommendations, the Trump administration exhibited its own anxiety to tamp down the surge in energy prices on Friday by lifting its sanctions on an estimated 140 million barrels of Iranian oil aboard tankers already at sea.“This temporary, short-term authorization is strictly limited to oil that is already in transit and does not allow new purchases or production,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an X post announcing the policy reversal.“Further, Iran will have difficulty accessing any revenue generated and the United States will continue to maintain maximum pressure on Iran and its ability to access the international financial system.”Before Friday, Iranian oil already loaded onto tankers but not yet delivered was considered “sanctioned property” and subject to seizure. A week earlier, Mr. Bessent announced a similar 30-day easing of sanctions on Russian oil already at sea.

World Body Urges Lower Speed Limits, Increased Telework To Help Tame Surging Energy Prices

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