MSN.com: Wright State expert predicts gas will continue to rise as long as conflict in Europe remains

Excerpt

Riad Ajami, professor of management and international business.

As the conflict between Russia and Ukraine continues, the price of crude oil continues to soar, leading to higher pump prices in the U.S. And, experts say they predict the upward current trend will continue.

America is one of the three largest oil producers in the globe, the others being Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Professor Riad Ajami, director of the Center for Global Business at Wright State University, said on average Americans consume 20 million barrels of oil every day and rely on Russian oil. He advocates for short term solutions to ensure gas prices don’t continue to increase here in the United States and in Europe.

“In the long term, we have far more options but in the short term today our options are limited to people paying more for gas,” said Ajami.

Gas prices across the Miami Valley have topped $4 a gallon, a record high in the last several weeks. Ajami believes one of the worst things the Biden administration could do right now is to demand the world stop importing Russian oil without plans in place.

“In a global market for oil, you can not just tell the Europeans to stop importing Russian oil,” said Ajami. “Oil prices are already much higher there than here because of taxation, we don’t pay taxes on petroleum products. In the short term, we have to live with higher oil prices.”

Proposed short term solutions involve importing oil from Venezuela and Iran, increasing fracking and using our own oil reserves immediately. In the long term, things like going green and clean include moving toward electric cars and using natural gas instead. Ajami also said a long-term goal should be independence from Russian oil.

“Should we allow the Europeans to accept Russian oil today in the short term? Yes. But in the long term, no. Make it difficult,” said Ajami. “We need to explore more options so the Europeans can wean themselves off of Russian oil.”

AAA advises residents to do all your trips in one run to avoid using gas multiple times a day and make sure your tires are properly inflated to optimize gas mileage.

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