Secretary of Energy Chris Wright says that rising oil prices are based on “fears,” not the escalating U.S.-launched war in the Middle East.
Wright, 61, appeared on both Fox News Sunday and CNN’s State of the Union, and insisted Americans struggling to fill their tanks is caused by a “perception” problem. Wright did not put much blame on President Donald Trump, 79, for launching an unauthorized attack on Iran on Feb. 28, which spread chaos and violence across the region.
Asked by Fox News host Shannon Bream about the “narrative of rising prices” as reported on by Politico, Wright avowed: ”It’s fiction. It’s right along the line. I’ve read about a dozen fiction pieces from Politico and other news things about stuff just totally made up, whole cloth.”
Despite calling the crisis “fiction,” Wright then suggested that oil was indeed more expensive—but that there were no shortages, and any price hikes were due to speculative fear.
“In fact, the run up in prices has nothing to do with any shortage of barrels of oil or natural gas,” he said. “It’s just fear and perception, the unknown, that this could be a long drawn out crisis. But it won’t be.”
Trump stated on Saturday via Truth Social that “Iran is no longer the ‘Bully of the Middle East,’ they are, instead, ‘THE LOSER OF THE MIDDLE EAST,’ and will be for many decades until they surrender or, more likely, completely collapse!” Leaked reports indicate that the Trump administration anticipates military action through September.
The former businessman echoed his bizarre claims on State of the Union with Jake Tapper, after the host pointed out that the safe journey of one tanker through the Strait of Hormuz wasn’t too huge of an achievement considering 60 to 100 tankers traveled through per day prior to war with Iran.
Admitting oil was “nowhere near normal traffic right now,” Wright later insisted: “We have that oil. We have—the world is very well supplied with oil right now. The United States is a net oil exporter. We’re a net natural gas exporter.
“We are suffering high prices not in natural gas but in oil, because it’s a globally-connected market. We’re communicating with our allies abroad. The oil is there.”
Wright concluded: “You’re seeing a little bit of fear premium in the marketplace, but the world is not short of oil today or natural gas.”
According to the AAA via Axios, the last week has seen gasoline rise by 47 cents per gallon, and diesel 83 cents. While Wright contested claims of shortages, increased tensions in the Middle East have made the Strait of Hormuz—which used to channel around 20 percent of global oil per day—in many cases uncrossable.
With the war in Iran blocking the route, Donald Trump has now temporarily suspended many sanctions on Russian crude oil, meaning that Vladimir Putin can profit from the crisis to fulfil resource demands.
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