{"id":38213,"date":"2026-09-06T15:33:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T15:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/38213\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T15:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T15:33:12","slug":"ukraine-war-single-biggest-factor-driving-record-diesel-prices-wright-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/38213\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war ‘single biggest factor’ driving record diesel prices, Wright says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Energy Secretary Chris Wright<\/a> said the Russia-Ukraine war<\/a> is the \u201csingle biggest factor\u201d behind the historic increase in diesel prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiesel has been impacted by a lot of factors, but the single biggest one there has been the Ukrainian destruction of Russian refineries,\u201d Wright said on CNN\u2019s State of the Union on Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia was a meaningful exporter of diesel throughout the last several decades,\u201d he added. \u201cToday, they\u2019ve banned any exports of diesel. China has also dramatically throttled back exports of diesel, and in fact, Russia is importing gasoline, where they have historically been a net exporter of that. So the refining market has become very tight.\u201d<\/p>\n

His remarks came as President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> special envoys Steve Witkoff<\/a> and Jared Kushner<\/a> engaged in peace talks with Russian officials in Moscow. The pair also traveled to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The discussions resulted in no breakthroughs over the weekend as the war between Russia<\/a> and Ukraine<\/a> continues.<\/p>\n

The Iran<\/a> war is also contributing to the record rise in gasoline and diesel prices, but Wright didn\u2019t focus on that conflict during his interview with CNN. Rather, he blamed Democrats for closing refineries over the past few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Biden administration closed over a dozen refineries in the United States,\u201d Wright said. \u201cGavin Newsom in California closed two significant refineries just in the last 12 months. We, of course, are rowing in the opposite direction. The Trump administration is working with our refiners to expand their capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cabinet secretary cited his recent visit to Venezuela<\/a> as part of the administration\u2019s efforts to raise not only oil production but also refinery capacity to supply the global oil market.<\/p>\n

Last week, the United States facilitated a series of deals between the Venezuelan government and five energy companies, including Chevron<\/a>. The signed agreements are separate from the major U.S.-Venezuela oil deal announced by Trump days before the energy chief\u2019s visit to Caracas.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Venezuela, I think things are going swimmingly, well above our projections,\u201d Wright told CNN. \u201cTheir national production of oil is up 25%. Their exports of oil is up 50%. We\u2019re way ahead of plan, and with billions of new dollars announced for investment into the country, every month that story gets better than it was the month before. So progress is happening rapidly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid all of the international developments, gas and diesel prices for the extended Labor Day<\/a> weekend are at an all-time high.<\/p>\n

As of Sunday, AAA says<\/a> the national average gas price is $4.15, and the average for diesel is $5.90. Monday\u2019s average gas price is on track to outpace the record<\/a> set by Labor Day 2012, which was $3.82 per gallon.<\/p>\n

PUTIN ORDERS PAUSE IN UKRAINE STRIKES AS WITKOFF AND KUSHNER ARRIVE IN MOSCOW<\/a><\/p>\n

Gas prices usually decrease after Labor Day due to the falling seasonal demand this time of year, but it\u2019s likely those costs will remain high due to geopolitical tensions, particularly the U.S.-Iran war over the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Asked if gas prices could rise significantly more than the already high levels, Wright said, \u201cI don\u2019t want to have an opinion on that.\u201d Pressed again on the question, he answered, \u201cGasoline production is about to go up, and demand is about to go down. So, if I had to guess, they\u2019re more likely to go down than go up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Russia-Ukraine war is the \u201csingle biggest factor\u201d behind the historic increase in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[13315,1903,6241,42,13316,653,6,192],"class_list":["post-38213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-chris-wright","tag-energy","tag-gas-prices","tag-iran","tag-labor-day","tag-oil","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}