Deputy Energy Secretary Won’t Predict How High Gas Prices Will Go – CBS Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – Gasoline prices continue to rise, so how much higher will gasoline prices be?

In an interview seen only on KDKA-TV, it was one of many questions currency editor Jon Delano asked the deputy energy director on Thursday.

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Delano: How much more will gasoline prices increase in the coming days?

Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk: What we actually have here is a double whale. We already have high gas prices caused by the COVID crisis. And then, of course, Putin decided to invade Ukraine for absolutely no reason to do so.

The slow response by oil and gas companies to keep up with post-COVID petroleum demand, coupled with Putin’s war and Russia’s oil boycott, has caused gasoline prices to skyrocket, Turk said. However, he said a meeting with oil producers in Texas this week could help.

“They’re ramping up production and that should help fill this gap in the short-term production run,” Turk said.

As for how much higher gas prices could go, Turk was uncommitted, noting the good news on Thursday that the price of a barrel of oil is falling.

“It has to be as high as $127 a barrel,” he said. “Now, it is backing away as I speak. At least five minutes before I last checked, it was down to $107 dollars a barrel. But it’s a volatile market.”

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The deputy secretary-general said he hoped US oil producers would not engage in price manipulation in response to Putin’s war, but he delayed with other agencies on whether that would happen. are not.

“They are other people in the interagency, other departments, the Department of Justice, the FTC, others looking at that issue specifically,” he said.

So far, there has been no news from the federal government about the price gouging that has occurred. KDKA’s Jon Delano also asked Turk about Governor Tom Wolf and four other governors calling for a suspension of the federal gas tax.

Delano: Time to suspend federal gas taxes?

Turkey: The secretary and I, all of us in the department, have engaged with the White House, engaged with members of Congress on this issue.

No decision has been made yet, but alleviating the pain at the pump is key to President Joe Biden, Mr Turk said.

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“Plenty of focus on what real people in the real world are paying at the pump, how that affects their household finances and other things,” says Turk.