We already know the best way to defeat Iran in the long run. We already did this 50 years ago to neuter Saudi Arabia and OPEC. Then we implemented automobile fuel economy standards (corporate average fuel economy or CAFE) in 1975. After a slow start, by 1984 OPEC was no longer an important threat to national security.

Today we are primed to accelerate vehicle fuel efficiency. The auto companies already tooled up to produce more of these fuel sippers. We can simply accelerate to standards. And we can go further in several ways. The first is to apply the light duty automobile standards to all passenger vehicles including SUVs and vans built on “truck” frames. This latter group has come to dominate car sales. Another is to restrict engine horsepower–there is a direct tradeoff between horsepower and fuel economy. A third is to aggressively promote EVs and expand the public charging network.

So how do we pay for this? Instead of putting $445 billion into the Defense budget to pay for more obsolete weapons, we can use that same money to encourage people to get rid of their old cars and buy a more fuel efficient one. One estimate found that 70% of all U.S. cars are older than six years. If the federal government offers $30,000 per car to replace an eligible vehicle. it would take about four years to replace the 200 plus million older cars, spending $1.5 trillion more effectively.

In the end, what Iran does in the Strait of Hormuz becomes irrelevant.