Cardinal & Pine: “Whatley recently told The Wall Street Journals’ Kim Strassel he expected gas prices to go down soon. That’s not going to happen, economists say.”
As North Carolina families pay record prices at the pump due to the Iran War, DC insider and Big Oil lobbyist Michael Whatley is profiting massively – and desperately trying to avoid accountability.
After raking in up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit from his oil and gas stocks, Whatley is now trying to dodge accountability by “misleading” North Carolinians about the impact of high gas prices. This comes as Whatley has insisted again and again that costs are down, even as inflation skyrockets and hurts North Carolina families.
اقرأ المزيد:
Cardinal & Pine: Trump may dismiss rising costs, but they’re playing huge roles in the 2026 election
Michael McElroy | May 22, 2026
- Whatley, Democrats are increasingly pointing out in press releases and sound bytes, owns stock in several oil and energy companies that have benefitted from the market turmoil the war has caused.
- These investments have made Whatley $219,000 in profit since the war began, the American Journal News reported.
- “When North Carolinians pay more at the gas pump, Michael Whatley makes money,” Anderson Clayton, the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, recently wrote in an oped for the Fayetteville Observer.
- Whatley recently told The Wall Street Journals’ Kim Strassel he expected gas prices to go down soon. That’s not going to happen, economists say.
- He also told Strassel gas prices now are lower than under the Biden administration. That’s misleading.
- But gas prices had fallen well below their current price before the 2024 election, and the average price per gallon for regular in the state is $1.40 higher now than it was before Trump began his second term.
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