Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he was “optimistic” that the price of gasoline will abate over the crucial summer driving season, retreating back to $3 a gallon.
“I’m optimistic that sometime between June 20 and September 20, that we can have $3 gas again,” Bessent said during a press briefing at the White House Wednesday.
The average price of a gallon of gas was averaging $4.108 this week, according to the American Automobile Association. That’s up from an average of less than $3 a gallon in the first two months of the year, before the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Bessent said the lower prices will depend on how negotiations to end the war progress over the coming days. He said that he’s been meeting with several of his Middle East counterparts during this week’s spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
“They all say that once the Straits are open, they can start pumping again within one week,” he said, referring to the Strait of Hormuz.
Bessent also reiterated his warning from earlier in the day that the Treasury Department and White House will be monitoring what happens with prices at the pump, and potentially publicly shaming those that don’t lower their prices fast enough.
“We are going to be watching the gas stations, because they raised prices very quickly” when crude oil prices went up, Bessent said. “We hope they’ll bring them down just as quickly as crude oil prices have come down, which they’ve come down substantially, just in the past 10 days.”
Written by: Daniel Flatley @Bloomberg
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