WASHINGTON (Reuters) – White House press spokesperson Jen Psaki declined to comment on U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s remarks on Wednesday that a ban on U.S. crude exports is a possible tool to calm oil prices.
“I would defer to the energy secretary, but I don’t have anything new to report on that from internally in the White House,” Psaki told reporters.
Earlier in the day, Granholm did not rule out a ban on crude oil exports, which was lifted in 2015. “That’s a tool that we have not used, but it is a tool as well,” Granholm told a Financial Times conference. She also said that tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is under consideration.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Leslie Adler)
