Chris Wright, the US Department of Energy secretary, said on Sunday that the spike in energy prices would last weeks, at the worst, not months, and that the US would not target Iran’s energy industry.
His comments come amid rising anxiety that Iran’s response to the US-Israel strikes, which caused a reduction in shipping through the strait of Hormuz and production slowdowns in some oil and gas producing states in the Middle East, may cause broad economic turbulence and higher inflation.
Asked about rising energy prices on CNN’s State of the Union, Wright said “in the worst case, this is a weeks, this is not a months thing”, adding that the US has “no plans to target Iran’s oil industry, their natural gas industry, or anything about their energy industry”.
Overnight on Sunday, plumes of thick, black smoke and oil raining down could be seen over Tehran. Wright said the attacks were Israeli strikes on local fuel depots. “The US is targeting zero energy infrastructure,” he said.
The nine-day war has caused a significant spike in oil prices, with the price of WTI crude rising 35% in one week. Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices have jumped. In the US, a gallon of regular gasoline jumped by 14% in a week to $3.41 on Saturday, according to the AAA motor club.
Wright predicted that US domestic energy prices, which have dropped during Trump’s term, will ultimately fall back. “We want it back below $3 a gallon. And it will be again before too long,” he said, adding: “You never know exactly the time frame of this, but, in the worst case, this is a weeks, this is not a months thing.”
Administration officials are seeking to sell the US public on the concept that a short-term energy prices rises are more acceptable than a long-term threat from a missile and nuclear-armed Iran.
“Iran has continued to build up their capabilities, first a massive expansion of their missile program, so that they can shield the completion of their nuclear program,” Wright told CNN.
“It is simply unacceptable for the United States, for the Middle East geography and for the world economy to have a terrorist regime with nuclear weapons and a gigantic missile arsenal,” he added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo that the rise in gas prices was “a short-term disruption for a long-term gain of taking out the rogue Iranian terrorist regime. and finally ending their restriction on the free-flow of energy through the straits of Hormuz”.
Leavitt said the Trump administration was “on the ball” when it announced last week it would back political risk re-insurance for vessels and offer US navy escort tankers through the choke point. Leavitt also pointed to increased oil production from Venezuela.
Leavitt dismissed threats from Iran on shipping, saying: “If you look at their actions, they’re not as strong or powerful as they were even nine days ago. Their navy is now deemed combat ineffective and their retaliatory strikes with ballistic missiles have decreased 90%.”
Wright also pointed to a large tanker that had passed through the strait in the last 24 hours. “We’re not too long away, I think, before you will see more regular resumption of ship traffic through the strait of Hormuz.”
Wright conceded that a single tanker was a fraction of the more typical 80-90 a day. “We’re nowhere near normal traffic right now. And that’ll take some time. But, again, worst case, that’s a few weeks. That’s not months.”
The sensitivity of the Trump administration officials to domestic energy prices ahead of congressional elections in November, with voters expressing that cost of living is their No 1 issue, comes as Trump himself has brushed off concerns.
“I don’t have any concern about it,” Trump told Reuters last week. “They’ll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit.”
Mike Waltz, US ambassador to the UN, told ABC News’s This Week on Sunday that Iran’s “military threats are now being taken down and destroyed. We need to see an Iran that doesn’t attack its neighbors and doesn’t hold energy supplies hostage for its radical aims.”
Waltz added that the Gulf states, “who were not so united in recent months around issues like Yemen or Sudan or others, they are absolutely united now. They are incensed”, adding that he anticipated “additional diplomatic and possibly military action from them in the coming days and weeks”.
