President Trump seems to be pulling out all the stops to mitigate high gas prices ahead of the midterms. President Trump is under pressure to bring down gas prices before the midterm elections amid surging energy prices from the war in Iran. Trump met with oil and gas executives on Tuesday to discuss increasing capacity.
He's also betting that a new oil deal with Venezuela can help to ease pressure on drivers. Neither effort is likely to pay off soon - certainly not by November - but that may not really be the point. FADEL: NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez is here to discuss the politics of all this.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila. So let's start with the Venezuela deal, because the way the president is selling this is that it's the answer to high prices. ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, I mean, the reality is Venezuela's oil reserves are so messed up that it'll likely take years before oil production meaningfully ramps up to make a difference.
A U.S. official not authorized to discuss this deal publicly admitted to reporters that the oil industry has been devastated by corruption and lack of investment and that it also needs to be rebuilt. I asked when we could reasonably see that, and he did not answer, stating that there was no timetable. But again, experts say that this could take years.
FADEL: What about meeting with executives? Does that do anything to fix gas prices if the problem is the oil just isn't moving because of the war with Iran, because of the fight for control of the Strait of Hormuz? ORDOÑEZ: Certainly not overnight.
I mean, before the war, tens of millions of barrels of oil - about a fifth of the world's consumption - passed through the Strait of Hormuz in Iran. Now it is a fraction of that, and it's going to be very hard to change that without ending the war. But this is the top issue on many voters' minds.
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