In an interview with MSNBC on Monday, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that US President Joe Biden could propose measures to alleviate high gasoline prices as soon as this week.

Granholm told MSNBC that the President may take action to address the country’s highest fuel prices in seven years. “Hopefully, there will be an announcement or so this week.”

“He’s certainly looking at what options he has in the limited range of tools a president might have to address the cost of gasoline at the pump, because it is a global market,” she added.

President Biden remarked this weekend, in response to OPEC+’s refusal to provide additional supply to the market, that: “There are other tools in the arsenal that we have to deal — and I’m dealing with other countries; at an appropriate time, I will talk about it — that we can get more energy in the — in the pipeline, figuratively and literally speaking.”

This was in response to a query about whether Washington was considering releasing any petroleum from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help keep retail gasoline prices in check.

After OPEC+ disregarded calls on Thursday to provide extra barrels on the market, Secretary Granholm told Bloomberg on Friday that President Biden is evaluating a release from the SPR as a possible action to lower gasoline prices in the United States.

In recent weeks, the oil price surge continued robust gasoline demand in the United States even after Labor Day, and dwindling fuel stocks across the country have pushed U.S. gasoline prices to a 7-year high.