Trump Energy Secretary Gets Grilled On High Oil Prices, Concedes ‘I Don’t Know the Future’

 

Fox News anchor John Roberts grilled Trump Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Monday about oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz and when Americans can expect gas prices to go down.

Wright tried to paint a rosy picture of the situation in Iran, by claiming the number of tankers going through the vital energy transit hub was up, meaning relief at the pump would be on the way soon.

“So even if the numbers were 30 tankers or 30 ships per day, that’s still down from a pre-war high of about 130 ships per day. Can we expect to see the traffic increase back up to pre-war levels?” Roberts pressed.

“Oh, I don’t know the future, but I will tell you, we’re going to continually get better at escorting traffic out, and the power of Iran is going to continue to shrink. So I think we’ll see a positive trend in that direction. As you mentioned, Iran can’t export any oil right now. That’s part of our economic strangulation, but the world doesn’t need Iranian oil,” Wright replied, adding:

Do we need other oil outside the Arabian Gulf? Absolutely. We have a bunch of allies there that are exporting their oil and gas, and we will see increasing exports from them, John. It is a balance here. We’re fixing a 47-year-old problem with this government and Iran and the threat of nuclear weapons, but it does cause some disruption in the short term. But President Trump’s policies have made us ready for that disruption.

“Which brings me to my next question — even though you’ve been getting out almost pre-war levels, and on some days pre-war levels of oil, oil is still — it’s on the screen there — $83 a barrel, up from, I think, the low 60s back in early February. Why is the price of oil so high if almost all the oil that was getting out before the war is getting out now?” Roberts pressed.

“Because, as you said, almost all — we’re not fully back to the full flows. So there is a disruption here. But I’ve got to point out, oil prices were far higher during the Biden administration when there wasn’t disruption of flows in the Middle East. And another huge thing for energy prices in the United States is Democratic policies,” Wright said, adding:

At both the federal level and at the state level, electricity prices are more than 40% higher in states run by Democrats. Gasoline prices are 40, 50 cents a gallon higher with Democrat energy policies. So foolish green energy policies — they’re at least as responsible for high energy prices as the conflict with Iran. And the conflict with Iran is going to lead to a better world going forward. These sort of foolish green energy policies don’t lead to a better world in any way, just a more expensive world.

Watch above via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!

Tags:

Alex Griffing is a Senior Editor at Mediaite. Send tips via email: alexanderg@mediaite.com. Follow him on Twitter: @alexgriffing