Secretary Wright Joins Bloomberg's Balance of Power – October 28, 2026

With the Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, who we caught up with at the Wisconsin Power and Light Plant in Beloit, Wisconsin, just above the Illinois border, talking about the DOE's more than $5 billion loan to Alliant that he was announcing today to try to strengthen grid reliability in Wisconsin and in Iowa. This follows his announcement with Constellation Energy yesterday, which was another $5 billion deal. And I started by asking him at what point the timeline here. Energy will, in fact, be surging into these states. Yeah, of course, this is capital infrastructure that's being built. So, you know, it'll take one, two, three years for this work to get done. But this is exactly what's needed. You've got to grow the available electricity and you've got to make it robust and reliable in the freezing cold of winter and the summer heat peaks in the summertime. Yeah, understood. I was reading your announcement on this. The subsidies here that we're talking about and that you're announcing today follow on the president strengthening the reliability and security of the electric grid, which we've talked about before here on Bloomberg. That EO was signed in April of 2025. So more than a year ago, yet this is being announced essentially on the eve of the midterm elections. Why not do this at the start of the energy crisis? At the beginning of the Iran war, we've been working every day since since I was sworn into the administration to deploy capital from the energy dominance financing office. It's our loan office. We're underwriting all kinds of loans that are low risk so that taxpayers will get their money back, but that deliver cost advantages for energy across our country in all different sectors. This is utility sector, as you mentioned. But this is about math and humans. It'll lower the price spikes that come when it gets very cold in the winter or very hot in the summertime. It's a radical change from the DOE under the previous Democratic administration where it was all about greenhouse gases and they didn't even evaluate impacts on affordability. So we'll go all four years deploying capital that are going to deliver reliable, affordable energy for Americans to lower their costs and increase their job opportunities. I see. We're looking at higher prices for crude again today, Mr. Secretary. As you well know, we've got WTI above 102 and Brent approaching $116 a barrel here. And there's an expectation, at least in the market, that we'll be back to some level of kinetic activity in Iran or with Iran following the midterm elections. When you consider everything that's happened since the outset of this war and recalling the Secretary of Defense. In the second day of the operation, saying we have a plan for the Strait, was it the planning of the war or the management of the fallout by the energy department that left us with such high prices for so long? Well, look, to go into a major energy-producing region of the world that the Middle East is and initiate kinetic conflict, of course, that's going to have an impact on energy supplies. But a nuclear-armed Iran would have enormous consequences, not just for long-term energy prices, but for peace and stability in the region. President Trump was simply not willing to hand his successor a nuclear-armed Iran. I'm proud of his courage in doing that. But our energy policies every day are about addition of energy, about mitigating impacts from events like this, where the Democrats for 17 years have been about energy subtraction, closing coal plants, closing refineries, preventing the movement of energy around the world. So this is a short-term interruption in affordable energy, but it's for a strategic reason. It's a structural problem with energy prices with Democrat energy subtraction policies. Well, it's been a while since we've had Democrats in the White House, but I'm curious if you expect crude to retest highs if strikes resume in Iran. Should the market brace for that? I don't know what will come in the future, but I'll tell you, the United States military has done a tremendous job in keeping oil flowing out of that region despite the conflict. The high prices we see today are really about a shortage of refining around the planet, and we're doing a lot to expand refining capacity in the United States and to work with friends and allies abroad to increase the flow of refined products. You know, you mentioned flows through the Strait. Mr. Secretary, it's been remarkable to see flows, at least on some days, return to pre-war levels. How much is the United States spending on a daily basis, on a nightly basis, for safe passage through the Strait? Look, I don't have specific numbers on that, but we've got large military forces deployed in the region. We're using forces that were already there in the region to escort those convoys out in the evening time. But there's no doubt that removing Iran's ability to develop a nuclear weapon, that comes at a cost. It's come at an economic cost. It's come at the cost of 18 brave American soldiers that have lost their lives in this conflict. But I think these costs are still modest when you compare what would this regime in Iran armed with nuclear weapons, what havoc would that bring? Well, it's been a boon for our oil companies. Of course, the President of the United States himself said that the US is, quote, making a freaking fortune, unquote. We're seeing Exxon Chevron trading near all-time highs. The XLE, it's incredible. It just keeps rising, Mr. Secretary. The President said when he dropped that line, and he got some laughs when he said it, that his advisors told him not to say that in public. Were you one of them? No, I did not speak with the president about that. But this is a guy who's worked his whole career to grow American energy production, to reduce energy prices. And look, it's the profit system, capitalism, that's what grows energy production, not top-down government control of things. But of course, the goal of energy policy is to have low-cost, affordable energy. 100% of Americans consume oil and gas. Only about 1% of Americans work in the production of them. Mm-hmm, understood. You know, the president was talking about solar last night, and it just, I recall conversations we had, Secretary, at the outset of the administration, and it was an all-of-the-above approach, along with drill, baby, drill. But I think you embraced an all-of-the-above approach for the most part. I know the president is done with wind. He's essentially called for the death of that industry. But last night, when it comes to solar, he said the solar panels kill all the animals, quote, the animals jump on them and they fry, unquote. If you look at shares of Enphase or They've been left for dead, Mr. Secretary. Has the administration succeeded in killing both of these industries? What we killed was the subsidies for those industries and the mandates that forced them onto grids driving up electricity prices. We want free market competition to decide the best way to deliver low-cost, affordable, reliable, secure energy. Where I am here in Wisconsin, the previous Department of Energy wanted to lend money up here about solar panels. Well, solar panels, in the summertime, you get a lot of energy out of them. In the wintertime, when it's cold and dark, they're completely worthless. They're just cost centers. So it's different math in different places, but for us it's not about politics, it's not about this technology or that technology, it's about the American people. How can we deliver affordable, reliable, secure energy? And subsidizing and forcing wind and solar onto electricity grids around the country has been a disaster. You can see it in the states with renewable portfolio standards that have forced wind and solar. They have 50% higher electricity prices than the states that don't have those. I haven't met anyone that wants their electrical bill to go up 50%. People want their bills to go down. And that's what the Republicans and the Trump administration work on every day. We're just doing the math. You are the energy expert here. You actually worked in the industry before you became energy secretary. So I just wonder, how do you look at solar, particularly when it comes to data center? You know, we've heard a lot of executives say that while they're lining up gas turbines for now, solar to battery to prevent outages and maintain consistency is going to be a really important part of that energy chain. Is there a place in the world for that technology, from your view? Oh, absolutely. Oh, solar energy will continue to grow. It'll grow in a more sensible way. Now, it won't be subsidized. It won't be some states will still force it onto the grid. But if it's in a competing in a marketplace, is there a role for solar energy? Absolutely. Is there a role for energy storage? Absolutely. In fact, this project we're on right up here, a lot of it is energy storage, battery energy storage. And also, liquefied natural gas storage inland in our country. So a very unique way of solving these peak demand times that really drive price and energy. So yes, there's a role for solar, there's a role for batteries, there's a role for all different kinds of energy technologies. But America's electrical grid today runs on natural gas, nuclear and coal, and that'll be true decades in the future as well. Do we want to see fusion energy arrive? Absolutely. Do we want geothermal? Do we want solar where it makes sense? Absolutely. Fusion Energy. I look forward to that interview someday, Secretary. I have to ask you before you leave us, I know you're traveling, but you might have seen this report in the Financial Times that the U.S. and Russia are in active talks around energy companies collaborating, resuming some of the joint ventures that ended with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Is the U.S. in active talks with Russian energy companies to start working together again? Look, I will say President Trump, since he arrived in office, has looked at how do we end the Russia-Ukraine war. You know, that was well along the way when this administration was inaugurated. And it's just a brutal war that's savaging the people of Ukraine. It's destroying the Russian economy. He's looking for any creative way to create the right incentives to end that war. That was the idea of this for six months, just temporarily suspending the sanctions on the export of diesel. Not on oil, not on any other Russian products, only on diesel. And why diesel? Two reasons. One, the world is giantly short of diesel today. And two, Russia cannot export diesel today because the war effort has taken so much of their consumption of diesel. And the Ukrainians have knocked their refineries out so they can't even produce enough diesel for their own demand. So the only way Russia can benefit meaningfully from exporting diesel is to turn down the war effort, deliver a ceasefire on energy or deliver a ceasefire on the war. And in any of these efforts, if they lead to an end of the war, there'll be home runs. Well, unfortunately, diesel's gone up from $6.31 a week ago to $6.35 today. Was that a yes on the U.S. talking with Russian oil companies? That's a no comment on that. But, of course, we're looking always for creative ways to deliver this war and end this war. And diesel's still down 20 cents a gallon from its peak last month. We will see it drop significantly. But to get there, we need more refined diesel onto the global marketplace. That will likely come from increased exports out of the Arabian Gulf region. We'll probably see China reenter the diesel supply to the world, but that's a challenge we're working on every day. That's the Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, speaking with us from Wisconsin a little bit earlier today.