The White House is downplaying concerns gas prices will spike if OPEC and allies of the cartel decide this week to cut oil production by more than a million barrels a day.
“Our focus has been pretty steadfast, which has been on taking every step to ensure markets are sufficiently supplied to meet demand for a growing global economy,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday. “Thanks to our efforts, we have seen some energy prices have declined sharply from their highs and American consumers are paying far less at the company.”
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Reports that representatives of the 13 OPEC member countries and their nonproducer partners, a group known as OPEC+, are convening in Vienna, Austria, this Wednesday to discuss production policy caused oil prices to rise by roughly 4% on Monday.
The White House has underscored decreases in gas prices since June’s nationwide highs of $5 exacerbated by post-pandemic economics and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The national average was $3.80 on Monday, according to AAA.
Five weeks before November’s midterm elections, the White House has been worried Hurricane Ian may put pressure on gas prices. Biden said last week his aides had predicted 160,000 barrels a day would be affected by the storm, which has ravaged Puerto Rico and Florida.
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“If gas station companies try to use this storm to raise prices, I’m going to ask officials to look into whether or not price-gouging is going on,” he told reporters at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
