The following is the transcript of the interview with Energy Secretary Chris Wright that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sept. 6, 2026.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We begin today with the U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, who joins us from Denver. Mr. Secretary, it is Labor Day, and Secretary Bessent had predicted we’d see three-dollar gas by September 20th, depending on the Iran talks. Do you think we’re going to be back at three bucks in the next two weeks?
SECRETARY OF ENERGY CHRIS WRIGHT: Well, we’ve passed peak demand time with Labor Day tomorrow, the end of the summer driving season, and the Trump administration a couple weeks ago rolled out a change in regulations that’ll allow American refiners to produce more gasoline and diesel with their existing equipment. So, seeing demand likely go down in the next few weeks and supply going up, I think prices headed downward is- is not an unreasonable expectation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: What about the diesel fuel that trucks and trains rely so heavily on? We saw that record high price of $5.89 a gallon this week. Is for example, an export ban off the table?
SEC. WRIGHT: You want to keep as much energy flowing as possible. The diesel situation has been challenging because Russian refineries have suffered significant damage. Russia used to be a meaningful exporter of diesel. Today, today they don’t export any diesel, and in fact, they’ve become a meaningful importer of gasoline. So its global refining capacity is why gasoline and diesel prices are high, even more than oil prices. And this is- for 17 years, Democrat policies have been attack hydrocarbons, get as many refineries and coal plants closed. You could summarize their energy and climate policies in two words, expensive energy.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you could also say Russia shouldn’t have invaded Ukraine, and then they’d still be able to export. But to the point of what you’re going to do about it, are you looking at an export ban?
SEC. WRIGHT: We consider all options of how you can move prices that are favorable for American consumers, but right now we’re leaning in on maximum production, energy addition. Again, in gasoline, in diesel, in the electricity sector, the way to solve a supply shortage is to grow supply.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, I want to ask you about Iran. You were on another network this morning, and you said the U.S. may not reach a nuclear deal with this current Iranian government and may have to wait for a new regime. If that is the current assessment, should the American people prepare themselves that the new normal will be these, for example, strikes like we saw just two days ago on Iranian oil tankers. Are you shutting down diplomatic outreach?
SEC. WRIGHT: No, we are always open for a deal. That’s President Trump’s goal is always to have a negotiated settlement and not use a military solution unless absolutely necessary, but the biggest role of our military in the region right now is to stop the export of any Iranian crude or crude-related products, natural gas, whatever. We are strangling their economy to try to bring either a change in policy from the existing regime or a new regime, their current strategy is- is slowly failing for them. Our exports of oil through the Strait of Hormuz are at the highest they’ve been since the conflict started, but they’re still causing trouble. But what we can do is add supply in Alaska, in the Gulf, in Venezuela, everywhere we can, and continue to grow the rate of exports from the Middle East as well.
MARGARET BRENNAN: but I mean to that point, Secretary Bessent said something like the Strait of Hormuz will be irrelevant in two years. It takes time to build pipelines to avoid the strait. How do you go from $90 a barrel now back to where we were pre-war, like 50 buck range? How quickly?
SEC. WRIGHT: You know that’s that’s as as soon as we can get barriers out of the way to grow production. Venezuelan production is well ahead of schedule. 50% growth in oil exports in the eight months we’ve been involved-that’s pretty tremendous. Alaska has been sanctioned more than Iran by Democratic politicians. We’ve got to unleash Alaska, and that’s happening. The Gulf of America has enormous oil and gas reserves there; those are growing as well. And of course, we’re in constant dialogue with the Canadians, our neighbors to the north. They’ve got huge room to expand oil production capacity. So we’re trying to center the world on bettering people’s lives and economic growth in the long run. Every month, production is growing. Every month, production is growing.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You you mentioned–
SEC. WRIGHT: Refineries is a bigger challenge.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah, you mentioned Venezuela a few times there, sorry, go ahead.
SEC. WRIGHT: Go ahead, Margaret. Go ahead.
MARGARET BRENNAN: This is the problem with remote. We’d love having you in studio, so we don’t step on each other. I apologize there. You mentioned Venezuela a few times. How is U.S. investment in Venezuelan oil production consistent with American energy dominance and independence?
SEC. WRIGHT: Well, first of all, it’s the Western Hemisphere, it’s Americas, and the great thing about this deal, the United States did no cost, zero cost to American taxpayers, but we’re going- to we’re going to get massive amounts of discounted oil price and ownership interest in some production there. But it’s a win for Venezuela as well because it helps the investment climate to draw more and more foreign capital in, mostly American capital, but from elsewhere around the world, to grow their production, lift the incomes and job opportunities for Venezuelans, and lower energy prices for the United States-a classic win-win business deal.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But is it really sustainable if the deal is with an unelected and arguably illegitimate government that has not committed to holding elections, which the U.S. says are a priority. How can you instill confidence when it’s a deal with Delcy Rodríguez?SEC. WRIGHT: There will be elections, of course. Those are coming, but this is a win-win deal.
MARGARET BRENNAN–When?–
SEC. WRIGHT: Any government that took power in Venezuela would say, “wow, we’re going to draw more capital, grow our production, increase jobs and tax revenues in Venezuela, and tighten our relationship with the United States.” That’s a pretty big win. I don’t think it’s that dependent upon which government is in power on whether that deal is a win. So there’s also a lot of refining capacity in Venezuela that we will see investment to drive that back up. Under President Biden, we had over a dozen refineries closed in the United States, and Gavin Newsom doubled down and strangled two more refineries in California in the last 12 months. Okay, that’s the way to expensive energy in the long term, not just during a conflict.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But just to button that up, you said there will be elections. Do you have a timeline for that? Does this deal with the current government make it impossible, for example, for María Corina Machado, person who won- party won the last election, to actually return for democracy to return?
SEC. WRIGHT: Oh, there are dialogues going on right now between the former leaders of the parliament, the election that was the last sort of fair election in 2015. The opposition leaders that fled the country are back in the country meeting with the existing powers. You need to get secure voter rolls. You need to have rule of law, we need to release the political prisoners and get the conditions for free and fair elections. But those are coming.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay, but no time frame on that. Okay, I’m told by the producer that we are going to have to leave it there. Secretary Wright, thank you, and we do hope to have you in person again so that we’re not stepping on each other. Face the Nation will be back in a minute. Stay with us.
