Overview
- President Donald Trump publicly demanded that gasoline retailers lower prices immediately and warned of “big problems” if they do not, urging a target of about $2.50 per gallon.
- The White House says the president has instructed the Department of Justice to investigate oil companies and retailers for possible price gouging and failure to pass recent crude-price declines to drivers.
- U.S. crude benchmarks have fallen after a U.S. Treasury license allowed some Iranian oil sales and ship movements through the Gulf increased, which has begun to ease wholesale fuel costs but not yet fully translated into lower pump prices.
- Industry and market frictions such as shipping backlogs, insurer and shipowner hesitancy, and fuel-distribution lags can delay retailers from cutting consumer prices even when crude costs drop.
- High pump prices have become a politically sensitive issue for the president and Congress and tie to earlier energy shocks from U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and Iran’s control of Gulf waterways that disrupted global flows and raised costs.