US energy secretary: Ending the war with Iran would significantly lower energy prices

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright stated on Sunday that ending the war with Iran would significantly lower energy prices, while acknowledging that President Donald Trump knew the risks for fuel markets before entering the conflict, as the Daily Caller reports. Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation” programme with host Margaret Brennan, Wright said Trump had wanted an end to hostilities with Iran “since before he became president”.

“He [Trump] has worked tirelessly to end this war,” Wright said. “Not only would ending this war end the killing of tens of thousands of people each month, but it would significantly lower energy prices.” The Strait of Hormuz — the critical chokepoint through which 20 per cent of world oil demand normally passes — is effectively closed during the war, pushing oil and gas prices up.

According to data from the American Automobile Association, the national average price of a US gallon of gasoline has reached 4.37 dollars, compared with 2.98 dollars two days before the start of the war, while oil prices rose by one dollar per barrel on Wednesday, according to a Reuters report.

The conversation also turned to the possibility of imposing tariffs on US adversaries during the oil crisis — including the question of whether Washington could impose tariffs on China for buying Russian oil. Wright replied that the administration is trying to have “excellent relations with China”, but added that all options must be looked at in order to end a deadly conflict. Citing an analysis by the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, on 18 October — a few weeks before the midterm elections — Trump could implement a tariff increase of up to 500 per cent on all imports from Russia through the Lindsey Graham Act.

“He said: ‘I will take the hit here, but I have to do the right thing’,” Wright quoted the president, asked whether tariffs are a national security decision or a political one. “If his decisions were political, he simply would have kicked the problem down the road and handed the next president a nuclear-armed Iran,” he stressed.