CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Tuesday, oil companies are testifying before lawmakers about ways to get gas prices down. AAA Texas shows, as of Tuesday morning, in the state of Texas, the cost of gas stands at $3.78, on average. And in Corpus Christi, a tank of gas will cost you $3.69 and even though that’s down from a week ago, it’s still having a big impact.
“My vehicle takes a lot, it’s very much affecting me. A single mom of 4 kids,” said Samantha Mulle.
A similar situation many others find themselves in. Mulle said she found other ways to make ends meet.
“My ex-mother-in-law has been helping us with gas cards so we can make it back and forth from work to school,” she said.
Mulle is even thinking about getting a second job and now as gas prices continue to hover around record levels in our country. This question comes up, is anything more expected out of Washington to bring relief to the pump?
President Joe Biden spoke about what the administration is doing to lower gas prices.
“We need to do more to get prices under control. Putin's invasion of Ukraine has driven up gas prices and food prices all over the world,” he said.
Mr. Biden announced the release of 1 million barrels per day for the next 6 months from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Professor of Finance at McCombs School of Business, Ehud Ronn said this is only a short term fix.
“The reserve initially only had 588 million barrels,” Ronn said.
While leaders of the nation’s energy companies will testify in front of congress. Lawmakers are looking at additional options.
Option 1 includes asks pressure oil executives to produce more oil and limit profits.
“To produce oil domestically. I agree with that, the incentives are there when prices are elevated at this point,” said Ronn.
Option 2 talks about fining oil companies for not drilling. But, Ronn said for gas prices to go down we must wait for a resolution to the war in Ukraine and look out for other players domestic and international to deliver more oil.
Option 3 proposes sending $100 a month to every American making under $75,000 for the rest of the year as long as gas is above $4.
“I can see it reduces and elevates some of the pressures on the consumers, but it does not do anything on increasing production,” said Ronn.
The idea of a rebate is not an exciting notion to some consumers like Samantha Mulle.
“They won’t send any money they won’t ask for it back. We’ll pay for it the end,” she said.
