{"id":204237,"date":"2026-03-16T02:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T02:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/energy-secretary-says-americans-could-feel-relief-on-gas-prices-in-a-few-more-weeks-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T02:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T02:05:11","slug":"energy-secretary-says-americans-could-feel-relief-on-gas-prices-in-a-few-more-weeks-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/energy-secretary-says-americans-could-feel-relief-on-gas-prices-in-a-few-more-weeks-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy secretary says Americans could feel relief on gas prices 'in a few more weeks' – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that there\u2019s \u201ca very good chance\u201d gas prices could drop below $3 per gallon by summer, predicting that in \u201ca few more weeks\u201d the U.S. will have \u201cremoved the risk\u201d of Iran\u2019s continued threat to global energy supplies.
\u201cAmericans are feeling it right now. Americans will feel it for a few more weeks,\u201d Wright told NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d about rising gas prices amid the joint U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Wright added that once the war is over, \u201cwe\u2019ll go to a world more abundant in energy, more affordable in energy, and less risky for American soldiers and commerce in the Middle East.\u201d
Oil prices continued to soar globally this week<\/a> as Iranian leaders have vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, a vital maritime passageway for oil tankers, closed.
Asked Sunday whether the Strait of Hormuz is safe for ships right now, the energy secretary said, \u201cNo, no it is not,\u201d but added that making it safe for reopening is \u201cone of the objectives at the end of this conflict.\u201d
In a phone call Saturday<\/a>, President Donald Trump dismissed concerns about rising gas prices in the U.S., telling NBC News, \u201cI think they\u2019ll go lower than they were before, and I had them at record lows.\u201d
\u201cThere\u2019s so much oil, gas \u2014 there\u2019s so much out there, but you know, it\u2019s being clogged up a little bit. It\u2019ll be unclogged very soon,\u201d the president added.
According to GasBuddy<\/a>, gas prices were averaging $2.94 per gallon in the U.S. on March 1, the day after the war began. On Saturday, they were averaging $3.70.
Asked directly whether gas would drop below $3 per gallon before the summer travel season, the energy secretary said, \u201cThere\u2019s a very good chance that\u2019ll be true.\u201d
\u201cThere\u2019s no guarantees in war. The time frame\u2019s still not entirely clear, but I think that\u2019s certainly a goal of the administration,\u201d he added.
On Saturday, U.S. forces conducted military strikes on Kharg Island<\/a>, a critical hub for Iran\u2019s oil production.
In the phone interview Saturday, Trump said that \u201cwe totally demolished Kharg Island,\u201d but added: \u201cExcept, as you know, I didn\u2019t do anything having to do with the energy lines, because having to rebuild that would take years.\u201d
Iran has warned that if the U.S. strikes its oil infrastructure, it will retaliate by striking the oil infrastructure of the U.S.<\/a> and its allies in the region.
Also on Saturday, the president said he was asking the leaders of other countries to work together to secure the Strait of Hormuz.
In a Truth Social post<\/a>, he wrote that \u201chopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area\u201d so that Iran will no longer threaten the strait.
Later in the phone interview, Trump said some countries have \u201cnot only committed, but they think it\u2019s a great idea,\u201d but he declined to name any countries.
Wright on Sunday also demurred when asked what countries have committed to helping the U.S. reopen the strait, but said, \u201cI have been in dialogue with some of those nations, so I know that to be true.\u201d
\u201cThe world depends on the flows through Hormuz,\u201d he added, listing several Asian countries \u2014 Japan, Korea, China, Thailand and India \u2014 that he said are particularly dependent on the strait for their energy supply.
China, a strategic partner to Iran, hasn\u2019t publicly committed to helping the U.S. reopen the strait. But Wright told \u201cMeet the Press\u201d moderator Kristen Welker in response to questions about whether the U.S. is prepared to share intelligence with China that \u201cthe United States is always in dialogue with the Chinese.\u201d
\u201cOpening the Strait of Hormuz is even more important for China than it than it is for the United States,\u201d Wright added, saying, \u201cI do expect China will be a constructive partner in reopening\u201d the passageway.
In a separate interview on ABC, Wright said that once they\u2019re able, \u201call U.S. military assets\u201d will work to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“Right now, our focus is destroying their military capabilities, including those that are used specifically to threaten the straits. But we need to finish those tasks first, and you will see the straits open again in the not too distant future,” he added.
His remarks come just days after three U.S. officials told NBC News that 5,000 additional Marines and sailors<\/a> are deploying to the Middle East.
In the “Meet the Press” interview, Wright also responded to questions about how much longer the conflict with Iran could last.
Asked whether the war could be over in a few more weeks, the energy secretary said, \u201cI think that\u2019s the likely time frame.\u201d
Trump and other top officials in his administration have publicly sent mixed messages<\/a> about how long the war could continue, with the president on Saturday saying, \u201cWe\u2019ve knocked out most of their missiles. We\u2019ve knocked out most of their drones. We knocked out their manufacturing of missiles and drones, largely. Within two days, it\u2019ll be totally decimated.\u201d
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in a separate interview on “Meet the Press”, slammed the administration’s messaging around ending the operation telling Welker \u201cWhen you ask how long this war is going to go on, the secretary can\u2019t tell you, the president won\u2019t tell you, and it\u2019s because not having a clear object in mind when we began this war, it makes it very difficult to tell when its objectives have been accomplished.\u201d
\u201cI don\u2019t think the war is worth the costs, and it has already unleashed a lot of things that should have been foreseen, like the closing of the strait, like Iran\u2019s attack on its neighbors, but it\u2019s not clear that the president had a plan for any of this,” he added.
On Saturday, Trump said that U.S. officials expected Iran to close to the Strait of Hormuz in response to U.S. and Israeli strikes but he was \u201csurprised\u201d that Iran launched strikes against other Middle Eastern countries in response to joint operation.
It was \u201cthe biggest surprise I had of this whole thing,\u201d the president said.
Alexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeEnergy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that there\u2019s \u201ca very good chance\u201d gas prices could drop below $3 per gallon by summer, predicting that in \u201ca few more weeks\u201d the U.S. will have \u201cremoved the risk\u201d of Iran\u2019s continued threat to global energy supplies.\u201cAmericans are feeling it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-204237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}