Energy Secretary Chris Wright said high gas prices will continue for “a few more weeks” due to the war in Iran and the Iranian regimes choke on the Strait of Hormuz.
Wright appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press and discussed how the conflict is affecting gas prices for Americans, but said the war could be over in a few weeks, in turn lowering energy prices.
“It is a short-term disruption in the flow of energy. Americans are feeling it right now,” Wright said. “Americans will feel it for a few more weeks, but at the end, we will have removed the greatest risk to global energy supplies.”
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Wright also said there is a “very good chance” that gas will be under $3 per gallon come summertime, but added the caveat that although lower prices are the goal of the Trump administration, “there’s no guarantees in war.”
The price of oil has jumped this week, reaching $120 a barrel before coming back down. It has continued to hover around $100 a barrel.
President Donald Trump previously said that high oil prices are good for Americans, because “when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.”
Wright said the president was making “an economic point” when he made the claim about high oil prices.
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“He’s just making an economic point, that we’re such a large producer of oil, it does bring a lot of money into the US economy,” Wright said. “It doesn’t have the same impact on us as it does the other nations of the world when oil prices go up. But he’s all about low gas prices, low diesel prices, low energy prices.”
Iran’s government has made clear its plans to choke oil flow through the Strait of Hormuz and said oil could reach $200 per barrel as a result of its actions.
Wright dismissed the Iranian regime’s threats, saying the country is bluffing.
“I would pay no attention to what Iran says,” Wright said. “There is a lot of energy that flows through the Straits of Hormuz, and depending upon the timing and the manner in which this conflict comes to an end, we’re going to see some elevated pricing until we get there.”
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Wright cited the multi-national coordinated effort to lower energy prices as evidence of the Trump administration’s push to mitigate rising prices.
Last week, at the request of Trump, the U.S. released 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of a coordinated international effort aimed at stabilizing energy markets amid the war in Iran.
