Trump energy secretary blames Biden for Trump-era energy hikes

US Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright testifies before the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 7, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo

President Donald Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright made a point to blame former President Joe Biden for the nation’s recent uptick in energy costs Thursday on CNN.

“Electricity prices are on the rise in the U.S., in part due to the push and the needs of AI,” CNN anchor Kate Bolduan told Wright. “At the end of July, electricity prices surged to 5.5 percent. That's over twice the pace of overall inflation. What do you say to the American consumer? The direction is not the right direction.”

“I agree,” said Wright, “entirely because everything that's coming on the grid today was permitted during the Biden administration. They permitted wind, solar and batteries.”

But Bolduan pointed out the inconsistency of Trump’s own anti-renewable, pro-oil industry incentives.

“How is the idea of ‘drill, baby drill’ [working]? I don't understand that as being the actual answer, because … you also have the oil and gas companies telling the Dallas Fed [Energy Survey] just recently … [that] Trump's push to lower fuel prices lessens the economic incentive for producers to drill, and that’s incompatible with his stated desire to increase production,” Bolduan said. “The president's decision to impose tariffs on foreign products has driven up drilling costs at a time when producers are struggling in an oversupplied market. Drill, baby drill does not sound like a good investment under the conditions that have been set.”

Wright insisted that Trump's “focus is consumers,” saying: “He wants low oil, gas, oil prices, gas prices, heating prices, electricity prices. He wants all of those.”

“Doesn't sound like you can have both in this scenario,” Bolduan said. “Again, you've got electricity going up. It's becoming more expensive for people in the United States. And you have oil and gas producers saying, ‘we're not going to produce more.’”

Later in the interview, Bolduan took Wright to task on the president’s hypocrisy in calling for Europe to cut energy ties with Russia while ramping up its own uranium purchases.

“Why does the president think Europe needs to act to cut their ties when I have not heard anyone talking about the move to cut U.S. ties in buying uranium?” Bolduan repeated, and added that U.S. purchases of Russian uranium has actually been on the increase under the Trump administration.

“Because we've stopped closing nuclear power plants,” said Wright, who explained the U.S. currently does not have the capacity to enrich uranium and promised the nation was on its way to building more processing factories.

“Setting an example is definitely one thing,” Bolduan said.

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