01 | Demand Destruction | US oil is not winning the Iran war

About this episode

The episode discusses the impact of the Middle East war on fossil fuel demand and the US's role in oil and gas supply.

In this first bonus episode, we discuss why the Middle East war is accelerating the destruction of demand for fossil fuels, and why the US won’t become the new provider of "geopolitically secure” oil and gas. We also argue about whether the data is sufficient – *yet* – to prove our point that this is already happening. Hosted by energy and climate finance expert Kate Mackenzie, and Tim Sahay from the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab at Johns Hopkins University. They co-author The Polycris...

People in this episode

Host: Kate Mackenzie

Guest: Tim Sahay

Topics covered

• fossil fuels
• Middle East war
• oil and gas
• geopolitical security
• demand destruction

Keywords

• fossil fuels
• Middle East
• oil
• gas
• demand destruction
• geopolitical security
• energy
• climate finance

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab, Johns Hopkins University

Places: US, Middle East

More episodes of The Polycrisis

• 06 | The conjuncture of geopolitics, energy and climate · June 11, 2026 · 41 min
• 05 | Canada gets its China-made EVs · June 2, 2026 · 17 min
• 04 | Demand Destruction | Smelling the roses in Beijing · May 20, 2026 · 38 min
• 03 | Demand Destruction | Fossil chaos and electric acceleration · May 12, 2026 · 28 min
• 02 | Demand Destruction | OPEC drama kings · May 6, 2026 · 39 min
• 05 | Electric World Order | The US counterrevolution · April 21, 2026 · 26 min