Secretary of Energy Chris Wright
Energy Secretary Chris Wright attempted to do some damage control Thursday, as oil prices continue their rollercoaster climb. But unfortunately for Wright, it’s hard to sell a flaming bag of manure.
“Ultimately, this is going to help us fill the reserve, but we need the oil in the short term for the—short term pain for long term gain,” he told CNBC, defending the release of 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Wright’s own department says it doesn’t expect gas prices to return to pre-war levels until well into 2027.
Also in the interview, Wright claimed that President Donald Trump’s war on Iran makes energy markets safer—which was quickly undercut by footage aired alongside him, showing Iran's strikes on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
Wright then appeared on CNN, where he worked his ass off trying to spin what is clearly an oil crisis of Trump’s own making.
“We're in the midst of a significant disruption in the short term to fix the security of energy flow for the long term,” he said, downplaying an International Energy Agency report released Thursday, which found that Trump’s Iran war “is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market.”
And then when Wright appeared on the usually friendly shores of Fox News, he was forced to apologize for posting—and then deleting—a claim that the Trump administration had successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz, throwing the markets into chaos.
“I take full ownership of that as the person in charge of the department,” Wright said. “Very unfortunate. It will not happen again.”
Wright also acknowledged Thursday that the U.S. Navy currently has no way to escort tankers safely through the waterway.
“It can’t happen now,” he said. “We’re simply not ready.”
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