Business Rundown: Relief At The Pump For Thanksgiving Travelers
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I'm Jerry Willis, and this is the Fox Business Rundown. Friday, November 22nd, 2024. An estimated 80 million people will be traveling next week for Thanksgiving. Some good news for those road tripping this season who may find some relief at the gas pump. I think when we look at the progress

there was hope so we could actually see the national average go below $3 a gallon right before the holiday. - Folks are gearing up next week for their Thanksgiving travel plans. And although an airplane may be a popular choice, AAA is forecasting that over 70 million people will be making their trek by car.

Gas prices have been heavily on the minds of Americans the past few years of seeing major spikes in the summertime. Energy policy got plenty of attention during the 2024 presidential campaign. Now that President-elect Trump has begun to name his cabinet,

We're getting a better idea of what kinds of policies a second Trump administration may pursue. This past weekend, for example, President-elect Trump named Chris Wright, the CEO of fracking company Liberty Energy, as his pick to be the secretary of the Department of Energy. We'll start here, though, with gas prices as Americans rev up for that auto travel next week. And we have some good news.

It's not that the oil companies are going to boost the price because a lot of people are driving. It's the prices get boosted because a lot of people are driving, right? Phil Flynn is a Fox Business contributor and the author of the Phil Flynn Energy Report. You know, ultimately, you know, when we talk about gasoline prices, there's so many factors, Jerry, as you know. We talk about, you know, oil prices. We talk about geopolitical risk, refinery outages.

But there's also this thing called supply and demand. And people always say, oh, you know, right before the holiday, they're messing with us. They're driving up the prices. Well, the problem is during the holidays, there's a lot more people driving. There's a lot more demand. And when you have more demand and less supply, prices generally go up. So specifically, what kinds of prices do you think people will see next week?

Well, you know, the good news is, Jerry, is that the prices are really the lowest we've seen in years going into the Thanksgiving Day holiday. And this comes as we're going to see a record amount of people on the roads. Most of them will be in front of me usually, but that's beside the point. I think when we look at the prices, there was hope so we could actually see the national average go below $3 a gallon right before the holiday.

But I don't think we're going to quite make it. Wow, wow, wow. Wouldn't that be a Merry Christmas, my friend? Wow. So a gas price handle of two would be fabulous. But anyway, it's still going to be low compared to where it's been, right? I mean, this is good news for drivers.

It is good news for drivers. And I know when you go over the river and through the woods, it's a lot easier to do that when gas prices are down. And we have seen some relief at the pump. And a lot of that is because of the U.S. energy producers. They've been producing a record amount of oil. It's because the refiners have been very strong. And also, I think when you look at globally, we've seen demand weaker in China, and that's kept those prices under control as well.

So before I pivot to the story of the new likely energy secretary, I just want to say, hey, if you're out there, you're trying to find the lowest price. Take a look at GasBuddy.com. It's a good place to go to compare prices and get a sense of what's going on out there. But let's talk about this. How will the second Trump administration go about handling their energy policy differently than what we've just seen?

I think we're a move back towards sanity. And I say that because the Biden administration energy policy is insane. It never made any sense from day one. It was an aspirational energy policy, not based in reality.

by people that had no experience in energy whatsoever or any idea of how things actually work in the real world. And, you know, when President Biden came into office with a record amount of executive orders, slashing pipelines, drilling moratoriums, the threat of new, you

regulations on the industry, everything from ESG regulations to methane regulations. It was head spinning. And now we're coming back to what I say is reality, focusing on the fact that this country runs on fossil fuels. We can't get rid of them tomorrow or the next 50 years. So we're getting back to sanity.

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So quickly, do you believe the industry itself, CEOs running these companies that produce, find, refine oil, are they out there ramping up because they know that the Trump administration is coming in? There is a lot of investment money that has been spent.

on the sidelines because in the last administration, they were fearful that if they invested in oil and gas, they'd be demonized, right? They'd be canceled, so to speak. And so I think we're going to see a lot of money come into U.S. energy because everybody realized this is the future.

The future is LNG. It's going to be building pipelines under this administration. It's basically undoing the damage that we saw during the last administration. So I think when you look at energy stocks, for example, that's why the XLE has really been outperforming even the oil market, because we're seeing that renewed optimism here.

Interesting. So Trump naming his energy secretary pick, it is a man named Chris Wright, very well known in the industry. He's a fracking CEO. So what do you think this means for energy policy going forward? Jockeying development. Can you imagine, Jerry, actually putting somebody in charge of the Department of Energy that actually has experience in energy? I mean, this is mind boggling. I mean, wow, what a concept.

And it's so refreshing because Mr. Wright understands the fracking. He understands what it takes to meet energy demand and to meet a payroll, just like the rest of the industry. But I think he also understands the value of

of what benefits the U.S. oil and gas industry brings to the U.S. economy and our national security. So this is a sigh of relief. And people in the industry are breathing a sigh of relief because they can speak the same language. You know, they can talk about the challenges.

of, you know, production as well as carbon emissions and everything, but talk to somebody who isn't treating them like they're, you know, some kind of enemy of the state, but somebody who understands their business. And that way you can get real solutions for the problem, not only increase oil production, but do it in a better way that's better for the environment as well.

a sigh of relief or a breath of fresh air for consumers now too as we come into this holiday season people are going to be excited about those gas prices and it's so funny because they're probably going to give the credit to trump even though he's not president right now so maybe and maybe that's the right thing to do but good news for folks who are going to be on their road phil flynn we love you thank you so much for helping us out really appreciate it my dear

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