Michael Noel, an economics professor at Texas Tech University, joins CBS News 24/7 to discuss the Trump administration's deal with Venezuela, and if it will actually provide any relief at the gas pump.
Page F4From§Eachthe matinee edition — 31 August 2026
Trump touts Venezuela oil deal to lower gas prices; experts say don't expect any change soon.
As it ran on the front
Let's run the filing against the pump. The administration is touting a new oil arrangement with Venezuela as the reason gas prices are headed down. That is the promise column. The expert column, filed the same week, says Americans should not expect to see any change at the pump anytime soon. Two documents, one subject, and they don't reconcile.
This isn't a matter of one side lying and one side telling the truth, hon. It's a matter of timeline. A deal announced this week does not move a barrel of crude, does not reroute a tanker, does not touch a refinery margin, on the day of the announcement. Prices at the pump are a lagging entry — they reflect contracts signed months ago, hedges taken out before anyone in Washington said the word Venezuela out loud. So when the administration touts a deal as relief and an independent expert immediately notes there is no relief on the near horizon, both of those statements can be, and are, true at once. What's missing from the filing is the interval between the two. The promise column has a date on it: now. The relief column, per the expert, does not.…
…(cont) That gap — announcement now, delivery unspecified — is not new to energy policy, and it is not exclusive to this administration. What is worth noting for the ledger is who benefits from the gap staying open. A deal that gets credit today for savings that arrive, if they arrive, on a schedule nobody has published, produces a political return well before it produces an economic one. The receipt gets cashed at the podium. The bill, or the lack of one, gets cashed at the pump, later, quietly, on a week with no press conference attached.
We are not in a position to tell you gas will or will not be cheaper by spring. Neither is the deal. Only one of the two admitted it.
“They hold a press conference about a deal that's supposed to save you money at the pump, and in the same breath an actual expert says don't hold your breath. That's the pattern: announce the relief, cash the headline, deliver nothing before the next news cycle eats it.”
“The deal is a major step toward energy stability and lower prices are absolutely on the way, the timeline is just, ah, still being finalized by market forces beyond the administration's control. Which — I suppose means we can't actually promise the price drop we just took credit for. That's not what I meant to say.”
The receipts
The deal involves developing 17 strategic oil fields in Venezuela, an undertaking that experts said could take years.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.