A shocking video by Twitter user Youssef Disla shows gas prices at a California gas station reaching nearly $8.50 per gallon.
It comes as a nationwide surge brings new pain to the pump atop already exorbitant prices.
However, the White House said Thursday that no action will be taken at this time in response to gas prices hitting seven-year highs, the Epoch Times reported.
“We continue to monitor global energy market supply, and we’ll work with our agency partners to determine if and when actions are needed,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, responding to a question regarding what steps the Joe Biden administration was taking to keep rising energy costs under control.
“We’re going to monitor the market and the means considering all tools in the toolbox to protect the American people,” Jean–Pierre continued. “But as we said, there is no plan to take action at this time.”
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm made similar remarks earlier this week, noting that the Biden administration was considering utilizing the nation’s emergency oil reserves to help lower gasoline prices.
“The probable causes for the increase are a slight uptick in demand and the high price of crude oil, which is stubbornly staying above $73” per barrel, the AAA said in an Oct. 4 note.
The crux of the Biden administration’s plan has been to convince the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, known as OPEC+, to agree to boost production more sharply to ease the supply crunch.
This plan has not been successful.
In an announcement on Monday, OPEC+ said it would stick to the terms of an earlier agreement to boost oil production by 400,000 barrels per day for the month of November. Calls to increase production have been ignored.
Another option for the Biden administration is to ban oil exports. Granholm and the Energy Department have stated that there is no immediate plan to do so.
