Secretary Wright Joins Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business - May 6, 2026

Joining me now is U.S. Energy Secretary Christopher Wright. Secretary, it's great to see you this morning. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me, Maria. So, Secretary, you just heard what Mike Rourke said, and I know that obviously you're in touch with all actors around the strait, and I wonder what you can tell us about security around the strait. The oil companies are saying that we still need more security. I mean, the president told me that the war is effectively over two and a half weeks ago, but this morning he put a tweet out saying, look, if they don't do a deal with us, well, then the bombing will resume. What can you tell us about the latest in terms of security in the Strait of Hormuz and what your priorities are this morning? Yeah, Maria, I think what we saw, and certainly what the Iranians saw with Project Freedom, is one way or the other, the United States is going to have free flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. It can be in an agreement with Iran, or it can be without an agreement with Iran. And I think the fear that the United States' military is going to open the strait, whether Iran wants it or not, made them realize, if that's true, we've got nothing. We have no remaining leverage. Maybe we should get more reasonable and get back to the table with the United States and see what we can get out of this. We're going to have to give up our nuclear program. We're going to have to stop terrorizing the Middle East. Hey, maybe the 90 million people in Iran can find a way to a better life. But the only leverage they have has been impeding flow of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. And Mike Wirth is right. They've been successful at that so far. But we can change that if we need to do it unilaterally. And, Secretary, of course, since you entered the job, you've been working on the U.S.'s energy dominance. And all hands on deck with regard to energy, whether it's oil, gas, LNG exports, grid reliability, nuclear, all of the above. Secretary, let me get your take on capacity. I mean, the UAE just left OPEC. Now it probably doesn't have to listen to those quotas. Do you expect more oil to be on the market from that end of the market, the UAE? And what about the U.S.'s capacity in terms of our maximum pumping right now? What can you tell us? Yes, well, as you've seen, just enormous growth in U.S. oil production to just become by far and away the world's largest exporter. That, of course, over the last 10 or 15 years has put enormous downward pressure on the prices of oil. Our efforts in Venezuela to take that country with the largest reserves and now make it open for business again, that is an avenue for enormous new oil reserves. And, yes, the United Arab Emirates is a growing producer, incredible reserves, really a phenomenally well-run nation. They thought, hey, you know, look, the world is going to see economic growth in the next years and decades ahead. Let's continue to invest in our capacity and we'll be unconstrained in our ability to deliver. So, yeah, we're in a tight, a little temporary tight situation right now to fix a 47-year-old problem. But is the future for energy, oil and natural gas and electricity bright in the coming years? Absolutely. The only threat to a well-energized world was just foolish policies at the United States and Western European nations somehow thinking the world was about to come to an end and we have to cramp energy supplies and economic growth and sell pessimism and end-of-the-world doomsterism. That's just nonsense. And I think President Trump has shown the lie to all that and we're looking for a more positive economic growth, artificial intelligence coming and America bouncing back not only as the world's largest energy producer but as a manufacturing powerhouse, a land of jobs and opportunity and optimism. Well, I love what you're saying and, of course, these are all national security issues and the President recently told the nation that the U.S. is producing more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined. So I ask you, in the middle of this conflict, do you actually have evidence that, in fact, major oil tankers are now coming to the Gulf of America to fill up their tanks and that they're actually looking to America over Iran, over other players out there to buy oil and gas from the U.S.? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Look, all the Asian tankers that were on their way to the Persian Gulf because that's the nearest major oil exporter for them diverted, went down and around Africa and we've seen just enormous loadings of American crude. In fact, if you look at the last, you know, 30, 45 days the biggest exporter of oil in the world exporter of oil is the United States. So, yes, we have reserves, we have the ability to produce oil to supply not just the United States but also our friends and allies and that's where we are today in the middle of solving a 47-year-old problem and, as you showed, oil well below $100 a barrel. We have a world well-supplied with energy but it is critical that President Trump has stood up and is going to end this just massive threat that Iran has been racing towards. A missile-endowed, nuclear-armed Iran is just an assurance of threats to energy supply as far as the eye can see. So, God bless President Trump's courage and the amazing American military to say that's not going to happen. We're not going to see a nuclear-armed Iran. We hold the cards, we hold the leverage. That's where this ends. Iran, you get to choose the path from here to there but no more nuclear weapons program in Iran and free flow of goods through the Strait of Hormuz. Both of those are coming. So, I mean, what is the timing on this, Secretary? Because, you know, it's interesting. We started this morning with a huge rally in stock. 600 points earlier and the price of oil was down sharply. At its best, it was down like 14% or 13%. And then the President put out this post a few minutes ago. It says, assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to which is perhaps a big assumption. So, as a result of that post, I think it did take some of the gains off. Now the Dow's up 437 and oil is down. I mean, the Dow Industrials are up 437 and the price of oil is down about 8 or 9%. So, I'm just wondering how much credibility you give this memo of understanding and what your expectation is in terms of the Iranians giving up their nuclear ambitions. Look, Iran has been, you know, double dealing, deceptive for 47 years. And here they see these sort of petty corrupt tyrants, their power coming down. Yes, that's a tough reality to live with. Yes, there's uncertainty and fractions within that regime. It's not a good place to be an Iranian leader right now. It may be about to be a great place to be an Iranian citizen. But for the leadership, this is very tough times. They are navigating the end of their 47-year tyranny. So, that's going to be a bumpy road. It's been a bumpy road so far. It may continue to be a bumpy road. But we know where the end point is. No nuclear-armed Iran. Free flow of trade through the Straits of Hormuz. You know, whether that's tomorrow or next week or a few weeks down the road, we may not know exactly that yet. But we know where we're going. And also, you've been really an important voice on the issues around national security and also about how much policy matters. I mean, with regard to permitting, I know that the president has done so much in terms of permitting reform and easing some of those regulations that were in place under the Biden administration. He did that in the big, beautiful bill. And of course, he's done that a lot through executive order. But do you expect Congress to codify some of these permitting regulations? The oil industry says that even after the president has done so much on that, they still need to see these permitting rules codified. Yeah, absolutely. To have a successful society in the long term, you've got to be able to build large things in a reasonable fashion. That's how we became a great nation. Look at our cities and our highway system and the incredible pipeline network we built during and right after World War II. We've got to be able to do that again. Of all kinds of infrastructure. I think there is great bipartisan interest. There is a lot of dialogues going on between Democrats and Republicans. I'm discussing with a number of Republicans and a number of Democrats the issues. These are, again, fraught political times. We've got an election coming. I'd love to pound the table and say we're definitely getting something done. I don't know that for sure, but I think there's a very good chance we will get a common-sense, bipartisan permitting reform bill done. That will be another very important achievement. We're working hard on that, Maria. Fingers crossed. That is a big deal. Real quick on the unevenness of the impact of the move in oil prices. You've heavily criticized California of what you've called an untenable threat. After the states saw an oil tanker from the Middle East dock on its shores, gas prices are surging to $6 a barrel. $6.16 this morning. Secretary, I know Dan Yergin has been on the show telling us that of all the states in America, California is impacted the most because of the way that they have dealt with policy, ensuring that you have no oil drilling anywhere near California, and they've relied on the Middle East for oil and gas. California's simply done everything wrong in energy policy. They've destroyed their electricity grid Three other states produce more electricity than California, but California wins in the most expensive of all. They used to produce 40% of U.S. oil. Now they produce 2%. Yes, the majority of their oil is imported from overseas on oil tankers to come into refineries in California that are struggling to remain open as two major ones close this year. They've done everything possible to make themselves more fragile to external shocks, to make energy more expensive, to drive the highest adjusted poverty rate of any nation in the state, net out migration of the population of businesses. And then I see Gavin Newsom around bragging about his policies. Like, where are those Americans that want expensive energy, that want dependence on foreign nations instead of their own state, or at least neighboring states in our own nation? All of those are within reach of Californians. And if some common sense eventually gets into political leadership out there, California could have a golden age again, too. Yeah, that's incredible. Now, I also heard from Mike Wirth that they are taking some money out of the Permian Basin, Secretary, and finding other opportunities across the world. What is your sense in terms of the capacity, where it comes from in the United States? Are you still looking at something like the Permian Basin as the most important? I know there are a lot, or I know you spent a lot of time in Alaska. Tell us what the plans are for the U.S. Yeah, so look, our biggest oil accumulation, and by far our biggest production right now, is the Permian Basin. It will be so for decades to come. So that's an awesome basin. But it's almost been too successful for its own good. So right now, it is pipeline-constrained about moving more energy out of there. But there are major pipelines under construction. Two will come on late this year. But there's such exciting opportunities in the Gulf of America. We're going to see massive new discoveries and growth there. And you mentioned Alaska as well. Alaska, it is just in the National Petroleum Reserve, think of that name, up in Alaska. Just enormous, enormous conventional oil reserves that are produced there. We had the biggest ever lease sale up there. You're going to see enormous growth in Alaskan oil production and natural gas production in the coming years. And of course, we've got oil and gas accumulations all around our country. It's just, you know, the scales have fallen off everyone's eyes, and it's about growth, it's about opportunity, it's about lowering costs and raising wages. Funny that that's controversial in California and among some circles in the Democrats. But that's the agenda. And no reason we can't continue to achieve it. Secretary, it's good to have you this morning. Thanks so much.