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Secretary Chris Wright Discusses Oil Prices, Tariffs, and Permitting on CNBC

April 8, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:10:27

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

CNBC’s Sara Eisen asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright about shale producers and whether prices were high enough to boost production. Wright said production was still growing and activity relatively high, and that while lower prices from there would cause producer concerns, the structural reason prices were going down was that the Trump administration came in to unleash American energy — removing uncertainties around permitting and allowing pipelines and export terminals to be built — signals that increase supply by lowering its cost, according to the interview. He said cyclical factors and economic concerns were mixed in as well, but American energy is central to President Trump’s agenda, as he put it.

Asked whether the president could get the drilling he wants amid recession concerns, Wright said companies invest based on prices, future price views, and cost structure, and that the break-even cost for the same return will be lower under President Trump than under President Biden. The government does not set prices — nobody sets prices; that is supply and demand in the marketplace — but lower prices are good for consumers, and producers with lower cost structures will thrive at lower price levels, he said, according to Wright.

On tariffs, Wright said that from the Trump administration there are no tariffs on energy across the board, which he called central, because energy is the infrastructure that enables everything else, as the interview continued.

Why it matters

Wright’s CNBC appearance states the department’s market theory of the case: the government’s lever is cost and permitting certainty, not price targets — the premise behind its permitting and export approvals.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins CNBC’s Sara Eisen - April 8th, 2025”, 2025-04-08 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-04-08). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.