The war with Iran has made summer gas prices unpredictable, as President Donald Trump’s shifting messaging on hostilities keeps the energy markets in limbo. There’s little concrete direction on where gas prices could go in the coming months, an expert told the Washington Examiner, since the conflict has been characterized by constant unpredictability so far. The volatility was underscored over the past few days, when Trump said Monday that the United States was on the cusp of a “powerful deal” to resolve tensions, before announcing Wednesday that Washington is planning to attack Iran “very hard.” “Gas prices this summer could fall below the $4 mark; they could go above $5,” Patrick De Haan, an analyst at GasBuddy, told the Washington Examiner. “I think for motorists, we’re all kind of living this uncertainty.”
But De Haan said the energy market seems to be taking the changes in stride, at least so far.
“From the psychological standpoint, the market is now accustomed to this situation, and unless there’s some sort of wild and completely unpredictable development, the market may respond in a more measured way now because it’s not as fearful of the unknown,” De Haan said. “We’ve been at this 100 days now, and I think there’s been a lot of twists and turns, so the market’s not really shocked by new developments.”
