On Thursday, CNN hosts Poppy Harlow and Boris Sanchez blamed climate change for the recent surge in gas prices with the former saying that the surge in prices is a reason “to get it in check when it comes to climate change.”
On “CNN This Morning,” CNN Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans stated, “There [are] a couple of things happening here: They’re still well below last year. Last year, at this time, we were hitting record highs, right? $4.30, last year, at this time, today, they’re $3.71. They’ve been jumping overnight. Some of these jumps have been pretty big. One of the reasons is the incessant heat means these refineries have to — are going offline for maintenance, they can’t run full throttle when it’s 115 with the heat index, just like people can’t work full throttle outside or on factory floors when it’s so, so hot. So, that’s one of the reasons. The other reason is, Russia backed out of this grain deal. And so, you had a rise in all kinds of commodity prices, corn, wheat, barley, all these prices have been going up. And sometimes, you tend to see commodities move together. But mostly, this heat thing has some of these refineries either slowing down or offline for maintenance. And that means they’re not processing as much gasoline.”
Harlow responded, “Another reason to get it in check when it comes to climate change.”
On “CNN News Central,” CNN Business Reporter Matt Egan said that “Part of it is the fact that oil prices have gone up as OPEC holds back supply. But it’s also these extremely hot temperatures. Analysts say that triple-digit heat is messing with refineries, causing them to limit their supply of gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel right when it’s needed the most. Hopefully, Boris, the situation goes back towards normal, as temperatures cool off.”
Sanchez responded, “Ironic that climate change is now causing issues in the very industry that has helped exacerbate it.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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