(Bloomberg) -- This time it wasn't a tweet.
President Donald J. Trump is again saying oil prices are too high, even after West Texas Intermediate crude dropped from a four-year high last week.
“I want more energy, because I don't like $74,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn Tuesday before heading to Iowa for a rally. Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency to lift summertime fueling restrictions on gasoline containing up to 15 percent ethanol, delivering a victory to corn farmers and drawing protests from oil producers.
The president later told reporters on Air Force One that he was going to expedite approvals for pipelines in Texas, where bottlenecks have caused some forecasters to slow their predicted growth rates for oil output from the booming Permian Basin.
U.S. benchmark prices rose to $76.41 a barrel on Oct. 3, the highest settlement since 2014, driven in part by market fears about the U.S. reimposing sanctions on Iran next month. Russian President Vladimir Putin last week suggested Trump should “look in the mirror” for who to blame for high oil prices. Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman told Bloomberg News last week that the Saudis and other OPEC members have replaced the lost supply from Iran.
The president also said Kanye West, who is coming to the White House for dinner Thursday, is “a terrific guy.”
--With assistance from Jennifer Jacobs.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tina Davis in New York at tinadavis@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tina Davis at tinadavis@bloomberg.net, Catherine Traywick, Millie Munshi
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