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Wright on Fox News: Energy Prices, Iran, and Refining Capacity

September 16, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:06:56

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

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Fox News’s Bill Hemmer that President Trump simply will not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons, arguing that an Iranian bomb would destabilize the region and raise energy prices permanently. He said the conflict had taken some energy supply off the market and imposed a short-term sacrifice on Americans in order to end Iran’s ability to raise energy prices forever.

Pressed with Democratic criticism — including $4 gasoline and record diesel prices cited in a clip played on the program, and a Wall Street Journal headline that Americans spent $100 billion extra on fuel during the Iran war — Wright called it ironic coming from Democrats. He said President Biden had celebrated shutting down oil and gas production and refinery closures, and that Governor Gavin Newsom had closed two large California refineries in the previous twelve months, which he said is how energy prices are raised permanently.

Wright said the Trump administration had reversed those policies and was working with American refiners to increase refining capacity and help build new production facilities. He argued gasoline prices were higher four years earlier under the Biden administration in normal times, whereas the current increase is temporary and tied to a conflict the United States will win and resolve, and that expanding energy supply is the only long-term way to lower prices.

Why it matters

The interview is the Energy Secretary’s core defense of wartime energy prices: temporary pain now, he argues, in exchange for ending a permanent Iranian threat and rebuilding U.S. refining and production capacity.

Scoreboard watch

Wright said the administration is working with U.S. refiners to increase refining capacity and build new production facilities; progress on new U.S. refining capacity is checkable against Energy Department and industry announcements.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Fox News’s Bill Hemmer – September 16, 2026”, 2026-09-16 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-09-16). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.