Here’s what the Trump administration is doing to lower oil and gas prices. Does it work?

Although the Trump administration is pulling more levers to reduce energy costs amid the expansion The war in Iranaverage gasoline prices in the US on Friday reached $4 a litre, raising questions about whether those efforts are working.

The most effective step to lower oil prices would be to reopen The Strait of Hormuz, the important Persian Gulf waterway that hosts 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas, according to experts. I the strait remains closed such as violence e the region is growingwhich caused the movement of ships to almost stop.

At the moment, the US is turning to other means to combat the rise in oil prices, with Brent crude, the international benchmark, about $ 108 a barrel, a 48% increase since the start of the war. The Trump administration’s strategies range from affecting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to easing government regulations that raise the cost of petroleum products.

“The main problem is that all these things they’re doing are measures of, ‘How do I resist taking out 20% of the world’s supply?’,” Willy Shih, a professor of management at Harvard Business School and an expert on energy markets, told CBS News.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Here’s what experts have to say about various measures to cap energy prices.

Touching the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

President Trump has ordered the release of 172 million barrels of oil in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) on March 11, when Brent crude reached $92 a barrel. Oil production began this week and will continue for more than 120 days.

SPR was established in the 1970s to provide an economic basis against energy disruptions, such as oil refinery outages from natural disasters.

This release marks the second largest in the history of the reserve after former President Joe Biden’s 2022 move to withdraw 180 million barrels. Mr. Biden had tapped the SPR to combat the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of that year, as well as inflation caused by the pandemic. Those two problems have led to US gasoline prices rising to an average of more than $5 a gallon.

The Trump administration’s SPR issuance is too small to counter the impact of the Iran war on energy supplies, Clayton Allen, head of the global political risk research firm Eurasia Group, told CBS News.

The International Energy Agency estimates that Gulf countries have cut oil production by 10 million barrels a day due to supply problems since the outbreak of war in Iran. Before the war, about 20 million barrels of oil passed through the Strait of Hormuz each day.

“The release won’t have much of an impact at all,” added Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, which tracks U.S. gas prices. “It’s like trying to replace a water pipe with grass.”

Extracting oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve also takes time. The fastest the US has been able to draw down supplies is 1 million barrels per day, despite the Trump administration’s target of 1.4 million barrels per day, Allen noted.

“There are physical limitations to their ability to do that,” he said. “So US oil will not hit the market as quickly as people expect.”

Allen added, “If people are expecting that this is going to get us back to $3.50 gas, that’s not really true.”

Dismissal of Jones action

Mr. Trump on Wednesday ordered a 60-day waiver Jones Acta 100-year-old law that requires goods moving between US ports to be carried on US-built, -flagged and manned vessels.

Temporarily suspending the rule would allow foreign vessels to move fuel between US ports, potentially increasing local supply and lowering pump prices. A recent analysis from the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan policy institute, estimated that repealing the law would lower gas prices by 3 cents per gallon.

The release is “too little, too late” to help sustain oil and gas prices, Harvard’s Shih told CBS News, adding that “It’s a drop in the bucket in terms of price impact if you take 20% of the world’s supply offline.”

Lifting sanctions on Russian oil

On March 12, the US said it would be temporary authorize the purchase of Russian oil which has already been loaded onto ships that have left the sea. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the one-month waiver “would not provide a significant financial benefit to the Russian government.”

It is not clear whether lifting those sanctions on Russia will help American drivers much, according to experts. The reason: There are only an estimated 124 million barrels of Russian oil in the world’s oceans. That’s equivalent to six days’ worth of normal shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, or just over one day’s worth of global consumption of 101 million barrels per day.

Would oil prices have gone higher without these measures?

Oil has reached $120 a barrel several times this month, but currently remains below that threshold.

Eurasia Group’s Allen told CBS News that the Trump administration’s actions are preventing oil from rising.

“Is that a success? It depends on how you define success, and really, determining how big the price impacts are going to be for how long this war goes on,” he said.

Other options to consider

The Trump administration is considering taking more steps to lower oil prices, and Bessent told Fox Business on Thursday that he may “pull out” Iranian oil that is already in the water.

“About 140 million barrels, depending on how you count — that’s 10 days to two weeks of supply, the Iranians have been taking out, all of it would have gone to China,” Bessent said.

In a related effort to stabilize global oil prices, the US has said it is allowing Iranian oil tankers to cross the Strait of Hormuz. “Iranian ships are already coming out, and we’ve allowed that to supply the whole world,” Bessent said in an interview with CNBC on Monday.

About 80% of Iran’s oil is exported to Asia, with China accounting for a large portion of that consumption.

The US is also considering revoking the regulation that prohibits gas stations from selling the mixture called E15 from June 1 to September 15, Reuters reported. The mixture is not sold in the warmer months because its high ethanol content means it evaporates easily in the heat, which can contribute to air pollution.

Some state lawmakers also want to repeal local gasoline taxes, aiming to lower prices at the pump. Georgia House of Representatives on Wednesday rate approved that would freeze the 33 cent per gallon gas tax for 60 days, while lawmakers in Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania are considering similar measures.

On the foreign policy side, Mr. Trump is pressuring other countries to help open the Strait of Hormuz. America’s six allies on Thursday expressed their “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage” in the conflict, although the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan did not provide details.

“We don’t have to end the war — we have to have confidence in the ability of ships to go to Hormuz,” David Victor, an energy expert and professor of public policy at the University of California San Diego, told CBS News. “There is nothing more you can do in the short term than what has already been done.”

Once the strait reopens, Victor added, “There will be immediate effects on the market. There will be a significant drop in prices and financial improvement.”