After news broke of a U.S.-Israeli strike on the Islamic Republic of Iran, for many people the first question wasn’t about military strategy — it was about the price of gasoline. Indeed, oil futures surged after the strikes, but situations such as these provide a valuable lesson about the importance of energy abundance.

Energy markets are resilient when supplies are plentiful and diversified across many sources. When energy production is constrained, whether by policy choices, investment uncertainty, or infrastructure limitations, geopolitical shocks translate quickly into higher prices.