Trump Is Wrong. The U.S. Does Need Middle East Oil
The U.S. still imports the kind of crude pumped in Iraq and Saudi Arabia. And any disruption to the region's oil exports would drive prices up at American gas pumps.
No one wants higher prices at the local gas pump.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergPresident Donald Trump was wrong last week when he said that the U.S. doesn’t need Middle East oil. For one thing, U.S. refiners still need to process it to make the products their customers want. What’s more, America’s car drivers and truckers need it to keep flowing or else they’ll face higher prices at their local gas pump.
Trump made his assertion during an address from the White House after Iran launched a barrage of missiles at two airbases in Iraq used by the U.S. military and amid fears of an escalation in attacks on key oil infrastructure in the region, including potentially the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow neck of water that connects the Persian Gulf to the open seas.