Secretary Chris Wright Tells Daily Caller Editor-In-Chief US Energy Policy Must Prioritize Cost, Reliability

WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Chris Wright said a power-rich U.S. should mean lower electricity costs and more reliable power for ordinary Americans as the Trump administration faces pressure over electricity affordability, grid reliability and fuel prices.

“We believe in more energy and less expensive energy,” Wright said Thursday during a fireside chat with Daily Caller editor-in-chief Amber Duke. The interview took place during “Daily Caller Live: The New Age of American Power,” an event co-hosted by the Daily Caller and the Daily Caller News Foundation and presented by ClearPath.

Wright pointed to coal as an example, arguing that states that have moved away from using it as fuel tend to have higher electricity prices. He noted that roughly 80% of states without coal generation have electricity prices above the national average.

Coal has been central to the American electricity system for more than a century, Wright said, pushing back against policies that have encouraged coal-fired power plants to retire. The secretary argued that energy policy should focus on the cost and reliability of different resources rather than treating some forms of energy as inherently “virtuous.”

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Wright also addressed the administration’s efforts to rebuild the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which was heavily drawn down under former President Joe Biden.

The biggest obstacle to substantially refilling the reserve is getting Congress to appropriate enough money to purchase crude oil, according to Wright.

The Department of Energy can also lend barrels from the reserve to companies during disruptions, with companies later returning crude to the government, he told Duke.