Energy Secretary Chris Wright seems content to wash his hands of the gas price crisis completely.
Wright, 61, appeared on State of the Union Sunday, and was told that for busy Labor Day weekend, the “average cost of a gallon of gas this weekend is the highest on record” at $4.13.
Host Dana Bash asked: “You said on this show five months ago that high gas prices had peaked, but between not just the Iran war, but the Russia-Ukraine war and the US’ own dwindling reserves, isn’t it possible gas prices could go up even more?”
A stammering Wright seemed to suggest that gas just wasn’t his problem. “Well, if you look at—I—look—I don’t want to have an opinion on that,” he said.
He then theorized: “But if you look at the futures market right now, what can you buy gasoline for two months in advance from where we are today? It’s down more than 30 cents a gallon from where it is today.”
Wright suggested that we could be in with some luck now that we’re “hitting the end of the summer driving season.”
“The Trump administration has changed blending requirements for American refiners, which allows them to produce more gasoline, just as demand for gasoline is about to start heading down,” he said.
Trump’s decision to end summer-blend gasoline requirements earlier than the usual September 15—at the risk of higher pollution—hasn’t been agreed to by all states, with Wright blaming Democrat governors for “driving up prices on their residents.”
“But the Trump Administration is doing everything we can to drive energy prices down, as we have since the day we arrived in office,” he summarized.
Bash asked again: “Respectfully, as the energy secretary, shouldn’t you have an opinion on where gas prices are and where they’re going?”
Despite the prompt, Wright remained on the fence. “Gasoline production is about to go up and demand is about to go down. So if I had to guess, they’re more likely to go down than go up,” he said.
Later, Wright seemed similarly unsure of future outlooks when asked specifically about diesel. “It sounds like what you‘re saying is Americans are going to have to wait, that diesel prices are going to remain high for a while,” Bash noted.
Wright provided a glowing review of plans to ramp up Venezuela’s capabilities, but was still unwilling to provide an answer.
“Well, we have lots of actions to push in the other direction. So we’ll see. That’s going to be a supply and demand balance,” he said.
