"A crucial resource is being choked off from the world amid the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran — and it’s not oil. It’s helium.The rare, nonrenewable gas is a key ingredient for more than just party balloons. It’s needed for lifesaving medical procedures, groundbreaking research, and the current tech boom underpinning much of the US economy. The gas was also vital in the recent Artemis II mission that sent four astronauts around the moon and back.But the war in Iran has cut off a significant portion of global helium resources, leading to a 50 percent price increase and warnings of a debilitating supply shortage. And although the United States and Iran are working to open key shipping routes in the region, the arrangement is far from certain, and the monthlong closure that has already transpired will still lead to supply shocks.The crisis could have been avoided — if the United States had kept its Federal Helium Reserve, a national stockpile that accounted for nearly 40 percent of the world’s supply in 2013 and helped stabilize supply and prices.For nearly thirty years, scientists, medical experts, and researchers urged lawmakers to preserve the national stockpile. Lawmakers instead spent that time selling it off bit by bit.The privatization effort started in 1996 with the backing of President Bill Clinton, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), and the archconservative group that would go on to write Project 2025.As the plan moved forward over the subsequent decades, federal agencies and congressional analysts failed to accurately forecast future helium demand, repeatedly promising that the private sector could meet industry needs — despite four global helium shortages that limited lifesaving procedures and forced universities to lay off researchers between 2006 and 2023."https://jacobin.com/2026/04/iran-war-us-helium-crisis#Iran #Helium #USA #Trump #Militarism #War
