President Donald Trump sat down Tuesday with a dozen refining and fuel-distribution executives in the Cabinet Room and then walked them through the Oval Office. The White House had billed the session as a working meeting on how to get more gasoline and diesel to American drivers before the midterms. What it did not produce was the post-meeting media availability that had been expected. When the cameras stay packed away after a high-profile sit-down with industry, that is usually a reliable tell.
The meeting did not bear real fruit, evidenced by the fact that the post-meeting press availability that had been schedule was cancelled. President Trump did post a long list of celebratory moves he’s made and plans to make related to energy after the meeting ended, but nothing on this laudatory list of accomplishments is going to move gas prices at the pump lower in the near term.
The inability to come up with easy answers here is not a knock on the refiners who showed up. Valero, Marathon, PBF, Delek and the rest did not invent the price of gasoline at the pump. They do not set it. Retail prices track crude, plus taxes, plus the cost of government-mandated blending, plus whatever local station owners decide they can charge.
