WH Econ Adviser Won’t Endorse Additional Gulf Oil Leases, Says Energy Companies Charging Too Much for GasIan Hanchett 5 Oct 2022
On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Power Lunch,” White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said that “We want to see companies, energy companies bring prices down at the pump to reflect the wholesale price that they’re paying” while also avoiding any endorsement of new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico.
Deese said, “Well, we were disappointed by the decision today, but it’s also important to put this in context. We’ve seen the price of oil come down from $120 a barrel earlier in the summer to where we are today, and we’ve really seen a lot of progress in bringing down gas prices in the United States as well. And so, as you heard from the president today, we’re going to keep focused on the things that we can do to try to make sure that, at the end of the day, U.S. consumers are paying less for gas. We’ve made a lot of progress on that front. There’s more that we can do on that front as well.”
CNBC Senior White House Correspondent Kayla Tausche then asked, “Sen. Manchin (D-WV) says that needs to be permitting reform. The industry wants new leases in the Gulf of Mexico. And then there was a suggestion in the statement today that perhaps there could be some changes to antitrust laws focused on OPEC and potentially more releases from the emergency reserves. Which of those outcomes is the most impactful one to you?”
Deese responded, “Well, first, and we’ve been clear on this for a couple of — a set of weeks here now. We want to see companies, energy companies bring prices down at the pump to reflect the wholesale price that they’re paying. We have historically high spreads between the wholesale price that energy companies are paying and the retail price that consumers are paying.”
After Tausche cut in to say that much of that is due to things like taxes, distribution, and marketing, Deese stated, “Even if you take into account all of those, the typical spread there is about 90 cents historically over the course of the last three, five years. We’re now seeing that spread at $1.20, $1.30. So, if we bring that down to historical levels…you would see some immediate reduction. The idea of permitting reform, that’s something that the president has worked with Sen. Manchin and Sen. Schumer (D-NY) on. We should progress on that. And we should — those who are opposing that should recognize that we need to build more clean energy here in the United States. And you mentioned the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, one of the biggest reasons why we’ve seen some downward pressure on oil prices has been the historic release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And, as the president made clear today, that continues to be an option on the table going forward.”
Deese later added that continuing to work to get refineries to run at maximum capacity can also help.
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/10/05/wh-econ-adviser-wont-endorse-additional-gulf-oil-leases-says-energy-companies-charging-too-much-for-gas/
