(Bloomberg) — One of President Joe Biden’s top economic advisers touted White House efforts to tamp down soaring energy costs, a major driver of the largest annual consumer price increase since 1981.

“This president is dispatching his team do everything we can to help ease energy price pressures,” Jared Bernstein, a member of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers, said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television following the Labor Department’s release of consumer price index data for March.

Inflation gauges are closely followed and showed that consumer prices increased 8.5% in the last year, the highest increase in 40 years. It also rose 1.2% from one month ago for the largest monthly gain since 2005. 

Bernstein cited Biden’s decision two weeks ago to order the largest-ever release from the strategic petroleum reserve in showcasing the administration’s efforts to address the rising cost of living.

Biden will on Tuesday announce plans for expanded gasoline sales with higher-ethanol gasoline to further lower pump costs. 

Half of March’s monthly rise was driven by gasoline costs, while food prices were also significant. The prices of rent, as well as services such airline tickets and airfares also increased.

White House officials are attempting to cast inflation as an outgrowth of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, referring to increased energy costs as “Putin’s price hike.” 

“A full 70% of that increase is due to energy costs, 63% of that increase is due to gas alone,” Bernstein said. “In other words, this is a CPI print very much with the fingerprints of Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and its impact on commodity prices.”

However, rising prices have been a problem for the administration over the last year. This was long before Putin entered Ukraine on February 24th.

The risk for the White House is that the rising costs continue to hurt Americans’ bottom lines — and potentially color their perception of Democrats’ handling of the economy six months out from midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

Read more: Biden Aide Deese Says U.S. Economy Now ‘Facing Rocky Waters’

Recent inflation data have increased pressure on Federal Reserve to increase interest rates aggressively.

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