U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) speaks to reporters after a roundtable on rising energy costs on Capitol Hill on March 17, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Anna Moneymaker getty images
The top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is investigating whether the Trump administration has done enough planning to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz, which has roiled energy markets for weeks as the war with Iran continues.
Senator Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., in a letter to Energy Secretary Chris Wright shared exclusively with CNBC on Tuesday, demanded answers to a series of questions about how the administration prepared to close the strait before starting a war with Iran. The Islamic Republic has effectively closed the strait since the beginning of the conflict.
“I am deeply concerned that the President’s decision to wage reckless war against Iran will wreak havoc on energy markets in the near future – raising energy costs for Americans across the country and causing global economic turmoil,” Heinrich said in the letter. “The Administration completely dismisses or fails to appreciate the impact that closing the Strait would have on domestic energy and domestic costs if we go to war with Iran and lacks a coherent strategy to end the war and stabilize domestic and global energy markets.”
Iran’s stranglehold on traffic in the strait has been one of the administration’s biggest liabilities amid the war effort. Earlier this week, the US began blockading Iranian ports in an effort to pressure the Iranians to allow tankers to pass. Meanwhile, gas prices in the US remain above $4 a gallon on average just months before the 2026 midterm elections, which could threaten President Donald Trump and the Republican Party’s grip on power.
Heinrich asked Wright to provide him with any reports or assessments the department might have prepared to analyze the effects of the war and closing the fissure on domestic and international energy markets before the war began and during its execution. He also asked whether the department had provided any such report to the White House or any Cabinet-level agency or council.
Heinrich also asked for any assessments related to damage to the Persian Gulf’s energy infrastructure, and investigated the origins of a controversial X post from Wright on March 10, which erroneously claimed that the US had escorted a tanker through the Strait of Hormuz.
“Explain why you posted that the US Navy ‘successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz’ and what is the origin of the information in the post,” Heinrich wrote.
He also asked whether the department has done any analysis about the impact of Trump’s blockade, and whether the department is doing any additional analysis about the threats that the Iran-backed Houthis might pose by seeking to close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, another major energy chokepoint that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.