July 15, 2025 • 7 mins
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright says the US is considering creative ways to refill the nation’s depleted Strategic Petroleum Reserve as it plans to start slowly refilling the massive oil cache. He spoke to Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Pittsburgh is host to
the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit. The event kicks
off today with President Trump set to attend in just
a few hours. For a look at the future of
(00:24):
US energy and tech, Bloomberg's Tyler Kendo is standing by Tyler,
Thanks so much, Ed.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And I'm pleased to say that I'm joined by the
US Energy Secretary, Christopher Right. Secretary Right, thank you so
much for joining Bloomberg. And I want to start with
one of the main reasons why we're here in Pittsburgh.
There is this surging demand for energy to help power
artificial intelligence, and the administration focuses a lot on its
deregulation agenda. Do you think that you can accomplish your
(00:52):
goals fast enough to keep up with what has been
a surge and energy consumption.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I think we will. You're right, it's a challenge. I mean,
the agenda of President Trump is to unleash American energy.
The last four years the Biden administration was more to
shackle American energy. But you're right, there's rapidly rising demand
and what we as the government need to do is
enable private businesses to build the things they want to
build and invest in the things they want to build.
(01:19):
We're not going to do this building ourselves, but we're
going to enable private businesses to do it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, I'm glad that you brought up private businesses and
to kind of put a finer point on this idea
of urgency. We actually heard from Mark Zuckerberg yesterday pledging
billions that Meta is going to invest in data centers,
but it is raising concerns about an energy crisis to
fuel it. I'm wondering, have you spoken to Zuckerberg or
Meta about their plans.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Oh, we speak Meta extensively about their plans, and yeah,
there's a number of the hyperscalers that have huge investment opportunities.
We're excited about that. This is the newest energy intensive
industry to arise. That's what artificial intelligence is, energy intensive industry,
taking them sophisticated, most expensive form of energy electricity and
(02:03):
turning it into intelligence to transform more world and protect
our nation. So yeah, Meta has huge investment plans, as
does Amazon and Microsoft and Google and the other players
in that space, and we need all of them will invest.
It's a few hundred billion dollars this year. In fact,
you'll hear at the conference today announcements it was seventy
and I think now ninety billion dollars just in the
(02:26):
state of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
When you hear big investments though, and how much energy
that is going to take, what's your level of concern
though that there is going to perhaps be such a
great demand. Can the US really keep.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Up with it?
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Absolutely? You know, United States energy production because of the
shale revolution just exploded in the last ten or twelve years.
Pennsylvania is a massive energy producer today. Pennsylvania exports more
energy out of its state than any other state except
for Texas. And Pennsylvania could massively grow its energy production,
(03:00):
just doesn't have enough pipeline capacity to move that natural
gas out of the state. So what's going to happen
is more that gas or additional gas will be consumed
in Pennsylvania, turned into electricity generated intelligence and keep the
United States ahead of China in the AI race.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
So I want to talk about oil, and I also
want to welcome in our audience that has just joined us.
We were talking to the US Energy Secretary Christopher Wright.
I'm Tyler Kendall. I want to show you some of
these statistics that our analysts have, Bloomberg pulled that the
US oil rig account has dropped thirteen percent since late February.
It's in the midst of its longest contraction since twenty twenty.
I know that there were some incentives in the reconciliation package,
(03:39):
but what further incentives is the administration considering to help
get forward these oil breaks to continue drilling.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Mostly it's get out of the way. You know, we
had the Biden administration had four years all of government
approach to try to, as they said, end fossil fuels. Now,
that didn't work very well. We went from eighty two
percent of American energy coming from fossil fuels before Biden
took office to eighty two percent exactly the same when
he left office. That those are just simply the energy
(04:11):
sources that power our country and our world today. But
it's get out of the way of the marketplace. Right now,
US production has grown so fast as has other places
in the world, that prices are maybe at the low
end of profitability for producers here, so you see a
pullback and activity You're going to see with these new
investments and economic growth in the United States, We're going
(04:32):
to see growth in demand for oil, and of course
that'll probably bump prices backed up a little bit, keep
drillers active.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Well, you mentioned there perhaps a lower price environment. And
part of this also, when we're talking about costs that
these companies are facing, has to do with tariffs, and
I wanted to ask you about copper in particular, which
is essential to data centers and getting energy to help
power AI. What sort of impact is a fifty percent
copper terraft set to go into effect on August first,
(04:58):
going to have when we're talking about the costs for
energy infrastructure.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Well, I think the biggest impact of that fifty percent
Terrafund coffer is going to speed up copper mining in
the United States. We have enormous copper resources here. We
have some huge minds that have been trying to get
going for years. We want to get copper production growing
rapidly in this country. Copper, like steel, is just essential
to everything that happens in the world.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Should we expect the energy industry to get some sort
of tariff carveout moving forward?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I believe the President plans no special carve outs. He
wants to reindustrialize the United States of America. There's a
lot of tools to do that make it easy to
invest in the United States, make it attractive to invest
in the United States, and tariffs are an additional element
of that toolbox.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I'm sure you're talking to industry, though. Is a carve
out on the table? Are there any negotiations underway for say,
the oil industry to get a carve out when it
comes to the equipment that they use in the field,
like copper or steel, for example.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
No discussions right now. We are hearing from the industry,
and of course this is true. If you incrementally raise
the cost of projects, that hurts the economics of them.
We want to do everything we possibly can to maximize
investments in the United States so jobs and opportunity come
here to our country.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Lastly, I just want to ask you a geopolitical question,
because we did hear from President Trump yesterday for a name,
one hundred percent so called secondary tariff on countries that
import Russian energy supplies. If that were to go into effect,
what would that do to prices in the global energy market.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Something like that would likely drive oil prices up. I
think President Trump's strong agenda there is to end the
war in Ukraine. Our hope is that that large pressure
will have an impact on Russia and we can bring
just a brutal war in Eastern Europe to an end.
That's President Trump's goal is prosperity at home and peace abroad,
(06:54):
and the old formulas weren't working very well in that respect.
So yeah, President Trump has very different tools, very different
negotiating skills, and very different level of boldness. I think
we're going to see tremendous growth in peace abroad and
prosperity at home.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
All Right, we have to leave it there. US Energy
Secretary Christopher Wright, thank you so much for your time.
This has been a conversation here in Pittsburgh on the
sidelines of the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Pittsburgh is host to
the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit. The event kicks
off today with President Trump set to attend in just
a few hours. For a look at the future of
(00:24):
US energy and tech, Bloomberg's Tyler Kendo is standing by Tyler,
Thanks so much, Ed.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
And I'm pleased to say that I'm joined by the
US Energy Secretary, Christopher Right. Secretary Right, thank you so
much for joining Bloomberg. And I want to start with
one of the main reasons why we're here in Pittsburgh.
There is this surging demand for energy to help power
artificial intelligence, and the administration focuses a lot on its
deregulation agenda. Do you think that you can accomplish your
(00:52):
goals fast enough to keep up with what has been
a surge and energy consumption.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I think we will. You're right, it's a challenge. I mean,
the agenda of President Trump is to unleash American energy.
The last four years the Biden administration was more to
shackle American energy. But you're right, there's rapidly rising demand
and what we as the government need to do is
enable private businesses to build the things they want to
build and invest in the things they want to build.
(01:19):
We're not going to do this building ourselves, but we're
going to enable private businesses to do it.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, I'm glad that you brought up private businesses and
to kind of put a finer point on this idea
of urgency. We actually heard from Mark Zuckerberg yesterday pledging
billions that Meta is going to invest in data centers,
but it is raising concerns about an energy crisis to
fuel it. I'm wondering, have you spoken to Zuckerberg or
Meta about their plans.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Oh, we speak Meta extensively about their plans, and yeah,
there's a number of the hyperscalers that have huge investment opportunities.
We're excited about that. This is the newest energy intensive
industry to arise. That's what artificial intelligence is, energy intensive industry,
taking them sophisticated, most expensive form of energy electricity and
(02:03):
turning it into intelligence to transform more world and protect
our nation. So yeah, Meta has huge investment plans, as
does Amazon and Microsoft and Google and the other players
in that space, and we need all of them will invest.
It's a few hundred billion dollars this year. In fact,
you'll hear at the conference today announcements it was seventy
and I think now ninety billion dollars just in the
(02:26):
state of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
When you hear big investments though, and how much energy
that is going to take, what's your level of concern
though that there is going to perhaps be such a
great demand. Can the US really keep.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Up with it?
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Absolutely? You know, United States energy production because of the
shale revolution just exploded in the last ten or twelve years.
Pennsylvania is a massive energy producer today. Pennsylvania exports more
energy out of its state than any other state except
for Texas. And Pennsylvania could massively grow its energy production,
(03:00):
just doesn't have enough pipeline capacity to move that natural
gas out of the state. So what's going to happen
is more that gas or additional gas will be consumed
in Pennsylvania, turned into electricity generated intelligence and keep the
United States ahead of China in the AI race.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
So I want to talk about oil, and I also
want to welcome in our audience that has just joined us.
We were talking to the US Energy Secretary Christopher Wright.
I'm Tyler Kendall. I want to show you some of
these statistics that our analysts have, Bloomberg pulled that the
US oil rig account has dropped thirteen percent since late February.
It's in the midst of its longest contraction since twenty twenty.
I know that there were some incentives in the reconciliation package,
(03:39):
but what further incentives is the administration considering to help
get forward these oil breaks to continue drilling.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Mostly it's get out of the way. You know, we
had the Biden administration had four years all of government
approach to try to, as they said, end fossil fuels. Now,
that didn't work very well. We went from eighty two
percent of American energy coming from fossil fuels before Biden
took office to eighty two percent exactly the same when
he left office. That those are just simply the energy
(04:11):
sources that power our country and our world today. But
it's get out of the way of the marketplace. Right now,
US production has grown so fast as has other places
in the world, that prices are maybe at the low
end of profitability for producers here, so you see a
pullback and activity You're going to see with these new
investments and economic growth in the United States, We're going
(04:32):
to see growth in demand for oil, and of course
that'll probably bump prices backed up a little bit, keep
drillers active.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Well, you mentioned there perhaps a lower price environment. And
part of this also, when we're talking about costs that
these companies are facing, has to do with tariffs, and
I wanted to ask you about copper in particular, which
is essential to data centers and getting energy to help
power AI. What sort of impact is a fifty percent
copper terraft set to go into effect on August first,
(04:58):
going to have when we're talking about the costs for
energy infrastructure.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
Well, I think the biggest impact of that fifty percent
Terrafund coffer is going to speed up copper mining in
the United States. We have enormous copper resources here. We
have some huge minds that have been trying to get
going for years. We want to get copper production growing
rapidly in this country. Copper, like steel, is just essential
to everything that happens in the world.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Should we expect the energy industry to get some sort
of tariff carveout moving forward?
Speaker 3 (05:28):
I believe the President plans no special carve outs. He
wants to reindustrialize the United States of America. There's a
lot of tools to do that make it easy to
invest in the United States, make it attractive to invest
in the United States, and tariffs are an additional element
of that toolbox.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I'm sure you're talking to industry, though. Is a carve
out on the table? Are there any negotiations underway for say,
the oil industry to get a carve out when it
comes to the equipment that they use in the field,
like copper or steel, for example.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
No discussions right now. We are hearing from the industry,
and of course this is true. If you incrementally raise
the cost of projects, that hurts the economics of them.
We want to do everything we possibly can to maximize
investments in the United States so jobs and opportunity come
here to our country.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Lastly, I just want to ask you a geopolitical question,
because we did hear from President Trump yesterday for a name,
one hundred percent so called secondary tariff on countries that
import Russian energy supplies. If that were to go into effect,
what would that do to prices in the global energy market.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Something like that would likely drive oil prices up. I
think President Trump's strong agenda there is to end the
war in Ukraine. Our hope is that that large pressure
will have an impact on Russia and we can bring
just a brutal war in Eastern Europe to an end.
That's President Trump's goal is prosperity at home and peace abroad,
(06:54):
and the old formulas weren't working very well in that respect.
So yeah, President Trump has very different tools, very different
negotiating skills, and very different level of boldness. I think
we're going to see tremendous growth in peace abroad and
prosperity at home.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
All Right, we have to leave it there. US Energy
Secretary Christopher Wright, thank you so much for your time.
This has been a conversation here in Pittsburgh on the
sidelines of the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit.
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