5 Big Energy Stories - 6.22.2026: No, the Strait of Hormuz Isn't Closed, and Another Big U.S. Nuclear Milestone

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright debunked any notion that the Strait of Hormuz is “closed,” as the IRGC and its propagandists in the anti-America media and social media continued to sporadically claim in recent days:

Transcript:

In the last 24 hours, or yesterday, 67 ships went through the Strait of Hormuz. The day before it was 55 ships. So in terms of oil and oil products, about equal to where we were before the conflict.

So yeah, traffic is flowing through the Straits quite nicely. Now that’s because of a U.S. Military presence. Iranians still have not demined the central shipping channel, but the U. S. Opened a channel down south and we’ve been escorting ships through that for several weeks now and at very high levels today.

[End]

Some propagandists accused Wright of lying by saying traffic is “about equal to where we were before the conflict” while leaving out his qualifier that that is “in terms of oil and oil products.” In fact, total ship traffic of all kinds through the Strait prior to March 1 averaged ~120 transits per day, of which oil and oil products tankers were less than half.

Obviously, the U.S. Navy escort efforts are initially focused on getting the oil/products tankers out of the Persian Gulf first, with other types of ships and their cargoes left waiting in the queue.

So, Sec. Wright isn’t lying at all - in fact, he very specifically and succinctly told the truth, something the propagandists simply cannot stand.