Energy Secretary Chris Wright: Repairing Gulf energy infrastructure must be a priority
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Energy Secretary Chris Wright says on the upcoming episode of "The Katie Miller Podcast" that repairing the Persian Gulf's energy infrastructure must be a priority, but acknowledges a "rough patch" until the war in Iran ends.
Why it matters: Rising gas prices are the biggest way most Americans are feeling Operation Epic Fury. President Trump and his Cabinet are making the case that the increases will be temporary, and are worth it in the long run.
The latest: Wright — in a joint interview in Washington last week with his wife, Liz Wright — told host Katie Miller, an official in the first Trump administration, that the war "is obviously impacting global energy markets."
- "Energy is not one sector of the economy," he says in a clip from the podcast, provided exclusively to Axios. "It is the sector of the economy that makes everything else possible. If you get energy wrong, you destroy your society."
Context: The war has all but halted oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas, or LNG.
What they're saying: "We need to repair the energy infrastructure in the Gulf," Wright said. "If the damage grows, it just means energy prices are gonna be higher for longer after it. But ultimately, the reason for the war is for 47 years, Iran has been a threat to American soldiers, to American interests, to all of the neighborhood in the Middle East, and ultimately, they've been a threat to energy delivery."
- "And so in the long run, this will have enormously positive benefits. You cannot have a nuclear-armed Iran that can control the flow of energy. We'll have a different Iran, a defanged Iran, and a better energy future. But there's a rough patch we'll go through in the meantime."
Go deeper: The full episode drops Tuesday at 6pm ET on X, YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Rumble.
