A key energy adviser to the Biden administration said on Sunday that he expects US gasoline prices to continue falling to $4 a gallon.
“It’s not five dollars anymore,” Amos Hochstein, special presidential coordinator for international energy affairs, told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Now it costs $4.55. And I expect it to drop further towards $4. And we already have many gas stations across the country that are under $4.”
The United States posted inflation of 9.1% in June, a four-decade high, according to The Associated Press. Gasoline prices, however, are down from a record high of $5 a gallon hit in mid-June.
Hochstein said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine created “extraordinary circumstances” for the United States and other major energy-consuming countries.
“This is the fastest rate of decline we’ve seen in the face of a major increase in oil prices during a war in Europe, where one of the warring parties is the world’s third-largest producer,” Hochstein said. “So, these are extraordinary circumstances. We have taken very strong measures to address them immediately.”
In March, more than a month after Russia invaded Ukraine, President Joe Biden ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to offset high gas prices. At the time, the White House said this would last up to 180 days, towards the end of September.
However, Hochstein said releases would continue through the end of the year. By then, the White House expects the oil industry to increase production by 1 million barrels per day.
“My expectation is that the private sector in the US will get those raises, so we don’t need to have the emergency from the US government,” Hochstein told CBS’s Margaret Brennan. “In the meantime, we’ve seen prices, both the price of oil and the price at the pump, come down at the fastest rate we’ve seen in over a decade.”
Hochstein’s interview follows Biden’s trip to the Middle East, including a stop in Saudi Arabia that was heavily criticized for the kingdom’s dire human rights record, including the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
The president said oil prices could fall “in a couple of weeks” as a result of his meeting with Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman.
However, the Saudis did not commit to increasing oil supplies.
