America's most powerful energy executives have issued a blunt private warning to the White House that the nation is burning through its fuel cushion so fast that prices could surge within weeks, a warning the US administration flatly rejects.
Industry leaders described petroleum inventories as nearing 'tank bottom' in closed-door talks with senior officials, according to E&E News and POLITICO reporting that first surfaced the conversations. The backdrop is a three-month disruption to the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint that normally carries about a fifth of the world's oil, after US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
