What Hormuz Is Teaching Traders About Utilities

Oil traders have spent months obsessing over tanker movements, shipping insurance costs and the fate of crude cargoes attempting to navigate the Strait of Hormuz. But now, some of that attention will be shifting to a longer-term play: a potential restructuring of American utilities themselves. Instead, Hormuz is exposing how vulnerable electricity markets remain to fuel price shocks, even after years of investment in renewable energy. While crude oil prices have dominated headlines, the effects