Energy Secretary Wright ‘can’t predict’ when gas prices will come down amid Iran conflict

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday he could not predict when gas prices would fall or whether they might rise further, as negotiations to end the conflict in Iran drag on.

“I can’t make any predictions about oil or gasoline prices,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Mr. Wright said his March forecast in the same program, that “there is a very good chance” that gasoline prices would fall below $3 a gallon before the summer travel season, was based on the administration’s expectations that the conflict would last about four to six weeks.

He said Sunday that U.S. military goals to destroy Iran’s air and naval defense systems and industrial capacity to build missiles and drones had been achieved in that time frame, but that negotiations to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon were taking “a little longer.”

The United States and Iran have both used the Strait of Hormuz as leverage in negotiations by preventing maritime traffic from passing through the oil transit bottleneck.

Mr. Wright’s inability to predict whether gas prices will rise or begin to fall is due to the uncertainty surrounding the negotiations.

“I can say that when we start to get free flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, energy prices will go down,” he said.

Mr Wright said Iran is “the world’s biggest threat to the global energy flow” and that ending the Islamic republic’s nuclear ambitions “is hugely positive for the energy flow”.

“More energy will flow in the future, which will mean lower energy prices for Americans and the rest of the world,” he said. “In the long term it’s a great decision, in the short term it causes some discomfort.”

The Energy Secretary said the Trump administration’s top priority is ending Iran’s nuclear program, but it will not let Iran continue to blockade the Strait of Hormuz if it cannot reach an agreement.

“If necessary, if we cannot reach an agreement with Iran, we will use military force to open the strait to everyone,” he said.

In another appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Mr. Wright said Project Freedom’s suspended efforts to clear the strait would resume “if it becomes clear in the coming days that there is not a good path to a negotiated settlement.”

“Economic pressure on Iran is currently increasing dramatically,” he said. “Not only is the country’s government losing its main export revenues due to our blockade, but Operation Economic Fury that we launched only a few weeks ago is collecting money from corrupt organizations. [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] leaders whom they sent abroad.

Mr. Wright said the Trump administration was working to mitigate the impact of rising oil prices in the meantime.

“We have taken a number of steps, releasing oil from our strategic oil reserves, and inviting 30 other countries to do so in coordination with us,” he said. “We have revised the EPA’s summer gasoline blending regulations to allow U.S. refineries to produce more gasoline. We have been in contact with all U.S. refiners, asking them to reduce maintenance work this spring so we can continue to pump more product.”

When asked whether President Trump would be willing to suspend the federal gas tax, Wight said the administration was “open to all ideas” but cautioned that “everything has trade-offs.”

The federal gas tax is used to fund federal transportation projects, such as highway and bridge maintenance, but its revenues are not enough to meet spending needs.

If Mr. Trump were to push for a suspension of the gas tax, he would have to persuade Congress to pass legislation to do so at a time when lawmakers are seeking to reauthorize spending on transportation programs — a tall order.

Mr. Wright said during his CBS appearance that his department’s nuclear experts were preparing to help achieve the U.S.-Israeli goal of eliminating Iran’s enriched uranium, but it remains to be decided how that process would unfold.

“Iran has nearly 1,000 pounds of uranium enriched to 60%, so close to weapons-grade – far higher than any potential commercial use of this uranium,” he said. “They always lied that it was for a civilian nuclear program. It was for their own energy. It was never about that. It was always about weapons, and the world simply cannot live with a nuclear-armed Iran.”