US energy chief defends waiver on Russian oil

Trump administration officials on Sunday defended a decision to temporarily lift some sanctions on Russian oil and predicted that a sharp increase in

gasoline prices resulting from the Iran war would last only weeks.



Energy Secretary Chris Wright and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said a waiver issued last week to allow Indian purchases of Russian oil would alleviate pressure on the global market.



"It's a 30-day pause to allow, which is just kind of common sense, to allow the millions and millions of barrels of oil that are sitting out on ships to go to Indian refineries," Waltz said on NBC's "Meet the Press."



Wright told CNN's "State of the Union" that the waiver can help "tamp this fear of shortage of oil, tamp the price spikes and the concerns we see in the marketplace."



With the war now in its second week and no end in sight, Americans are grappling with higher prices at the pump, a new complicating factor for the U.S. economy, which unexpectedly lost 92,000 jobs in February.



As of Friday, the US national average price for regular gasoline stood at $3.32 a gallon, up 11% from the previous week and the highest since September 2024, according to data from the motorists group AAA.



Diesel was at $4.33, up 15% from a week ago, surging to the highest level since November 2023.