On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Harvard Professor, economist, Director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama, and Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton Larry Summers stated that the Biden administration can take steps to increase the pumping of natural gas and oil drilling to bring down prices, and such actions “need to be taken as part of our transition to renewables.”
Summers said, “I think there are things the administration can do. They’ve been talking for six months about reducing tariffs to help U.S. consumers. It hasn’t happened yet. There are things that can be done to allow, in the short run, more pumping of natural gas and drilling for oil so that we increase supply and bring down those prices. Those steps need to be taken as part of our transition to renewables. We can take a stronger posture with respect to pharmaceutical prices that so often are much more expensive in this country than there are in — than they are in other countries. So, there are things we can do that will make a contribution to bringing down inflation. But, it’s going to take time, and just as the body doesn’t mobilize its immune system to fight a disease without experiencing — without the patient experiencing a fever, I think we are likely to see a downturn and recession in the not-too-distant future.”
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