The White House on Monday refused to confirm reports of officials considering a gas tax holiday as prices have reached new record highs for sixteen consecutive days.
“I don’t have anything new for you to announce on gas prices or the gas tax,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during the daily briefing.
Jean-Pierre recalled previous actions by Biden to release a record amount of oil from the National Strategic Oil Reserve and his efforts to expand access to the E-15 blend ethanol as efforts that had reduced prices already.
“If the president had not taken these actions, we would not have been able to blunt what we’re seeing now, the prices, it would’ve been even worse,” she said.
Biden has been reportedly frustrated behind the scenes about his inability to handle the crisis, as prices pushed past five dollars a gallon.
The Hill reported Monday, citing sources close to the White House, that the White House economic team was “more seriously considering” a gas tax holiday, that was “an option on the table.”
“As far as anything new to share, we don’t have anything new to share on that,” she said when asked by reporters about the idea.
Jean-Pierre reminded oil companies like Exxon that they were also responsible for high gas prices while making record profits.
“Oil companies also need to do their own part as well,” she said.
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