After peaking above $5 a gallon in June, gas prices in the United States are expected to continue falling in the coming weeks, a White House energy adviser said on Sunday, predicting prices around $4. dollars per gallon on average.
In an interview Sunday on CNET News’ “Face the Nation,” Amos Hochstein, special presidential coordinator for international energy affairs, said the Biden administration’s measures under “extraordinary circumstances” were working.
“It’s not $5 anymore, it’s now $4.55,” Hockstein said of gas prices, according to a transcript. “And I expect it to go further down towards $4. And we already have many gas stations across the country that cost less than $4. So we are – this is the fastest rate of decline we’ve seen from a major oil price increase during a war in Europe, where one of the warring parties is the world’s third-largest producer. So these are extraordinary circumstances. We have taken very strong measures to remedy this immediately, both for the American consumer but really for [the] the global economy as well.
The average U.S. gasoline price on Sunday was $4.532 a gallon, according to AAA, down about 14 cents from a week ago and $5 from a month ago. Still, that’s a significant jump from the price of gasoline a year ago, at $3.167 a gallon.
Gasoline prices are one of the most notable indicators of inflation, which hit 9.1% year-over-year in June, a 41-year high.
Hockstein credited Biden with releasing one million barrels of oil a day from the U.S. strategic reserve for helping to lower prices.
Emergency releases are expected to end toward the end of the year, and Hockstein said the Biden administration is confident oil companies will have ramped up production by then.
“I expect the private sector in the US to benefit from these increases, so we don’t need the urgency of the US government,” he told host Margaret Brennan.
Hockstein also noted that OPEC still has the capacity to produce significantly more oil and championed a proposal to cap the price of Russian oil.
“What we want to be able to do is mitigate where the price of oil on the world market has no impact on Russia at all,” he said. “So if prices go up, [Putin] still won’t get this award.