Financial expert responds to Biden’s gas price plan: ‘It’s not over’

The White House is taking steps to lower gas prices by releasing 50 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Financial expert Hugh Johnson, Chief Investment Officer of Hugh Johnson Advisors, said it’s possible we’ll see a decrease in gas prices – and a decrease in other goods’ prices – depending on how OPEC responds.

Several countries are timing releases, the largest coordinated release ever, U.S. officials said.

Johnson said it’d likely be a month before we see a change in prices, adding we have a 6.2% inflation rate, and energy prices makes up about 50-60% of the rise we’ve seen in consumer prices.

But OPEC can fight back, Johnson said, by reducing production.

“OPEC is very strong, but at the same time let’s keep one thing in mind: OPEC — generally talking about Saudi Arabia and Russia to an extent, and Iran — but Saudi Arabia needs the US for a lot of different reasons,” Johnson said.

The national average cost for a gallon of gas is $3.41, more than 50% higher than a year ago. That’s a 7-year high.