Biden admin official touts Iran nuclear deal as a way to bring US gas prices down
FOX BUSINESS | By Louis Casiano | June 19, 2022
John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, views the Iran nuclear deal as something with positive knock-on effects as some Biden administration officials believe it could drive down gas prices.
In a Fox News interview Tuesday, Kirby reiterated the goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, but it could produce other gains.
“Well, look, I mean, there’s obviously a tangential, potentially tangential benefit,” Kirby said when asked about recent remarks by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who framed the return of the deal as a way to bolster the global oil supply.
Sherman made her comment on July 12, during an interview at the International Student House of Washington.
“They would get sanctions relief,” she said. “They would improve their economy and sell their oil again, and the world needs their oil, so they could get a good price for it. It’s all in their interest to do this.”
American energy producers were quick to respond. “It is a lot simpler to consult with US oil and natural gas producers on ways to increase production to meet growing global demand than the administration’s ethical and geopolitical contortions with totalitarian regimes,” Jason Modglin, president of Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, told Fox News in a statement.
Biden has pushed several policies and executive orders to lower gas prices but none have boosted oil production. In June, he called on Congress to implement a three-month gas-tax holiday to reduce prices by 18 cents a gallon.
However, the Biden administration has simultaneously doubled down on its climate agenda, canceling multiple oil and gas lease sales, revoking the Keystone XL pipeline permit and asking Middle Eastern producers and Venezuela to boost output.
In a previous announcement, the White House noted oil production is increasing but said efforts to boost drilling “must be coupled with medium- and long-term efforts to transition our economy away from fossil fuels produced by autocrats and to clean energy.”
John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, said a return to the Iran nuclear deal would yield a benefit besides preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. (Fox News / Fox News)
