Hearings before the Senate Finance Committee

The US government has done all it can to reduce record high fuel prices in the United States. This was the statement made by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday.

According to the minister, the current geopolitical difficulties are among the reasons for the fuel price increase.

"As far as energy is concerned, the US administration has done everything it can to lower energy prices. For example, through the historic release of a million barrels a day from the strategic oil reserve. And fuel prices, gasoline prices, while very high, would have been even higher without such measures," Yellen said at a hearing before the US Senate Finance Committee.

In addition, she expressed the opinion that a share of responsibility for the current situation lies with US oil companies. "It seems to me that the oil industry did not anticipate the strength of the global economic recovery after the pandemic and the fact that oil prices would recover. And they certainly have incentives now to ramp up oil production. They have thousands of oil leases on federal lands that they have not yet drilled on," Yellen said.

The steady rise in the price of gasoline in the US began in late winter, with it steadily updating record highs for several weeks in a row. The rise in the price of fuel is taking place against a background of rising global oil prices, despite attempts by the White House to counter this trend.