EXCLUSIVE — Energy Secretary Chris Wright is staying away from predicting when gasoline prices will fall as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, walking back his previous thought that the United States had seen peak prices at the pump.Towards the end of April, Wright told lawmakers on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that while he does not know the future of gasoline and energy prices, he believed that it appeared gas prices peaked just a few days prior. “Often I will speculate or look at those things,” Wright said in his testimony. “I would say gasoline prices look like they peaked about a week or so ago.”
At the time, the national average price of gasoline was $4.02 a gallon. As of Friday, the national average has jumped to more than $4.52 a gallon.
When asked if he still stood by that remark during a phone interview with the Washington Examiner on Friday, Wright walked it back and clarified that he made the comment because a resolution to the war in Iran appeared to be close at hand.
“No, no, no,” he said. “A few weeks ago, I said it appears because we had hit a peak and gas prices started to pull down. It looked like we may have a resolution, but you know, we are dealing with the Iranians. Everything is unpredictable.”
