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Secretary Wright Discusses the DOGE Team at the Energy Department and Oil Prices with CNBC, Feb. 7, 2025

February 7, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:09:17

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

In a CNBC exclusive with the newly confirmed secretary, host Brian Sullivan asked who the reported young DOGE reviewers inside the department are and what they are doing in its computer systems. Wright said, as he stated it, that the team consists of young management consultants assembled through Elon Musk’s broader circle who are good at systems, doing a critical evaluation of how things are run today and coming up with ideas for doing things better, as he stated it.

Wright said, as he stated it, that rumors of the reviewers seeing nuclear secrets are not true at all, that they do not have anybody’s proprietary information, and that the department has three people in the building who were run through and checked by its security, have badges, and have access to look around, talk to people, and give feedback — nothing to be worried about, as he stated it.

On oil, Wright said, as he stated it, that prices are dictated by supply and demand but that the prior administration did everything it could to raise the cost of producing a barrel — uncertain permits taking 18 months, pipeline and gathering-line studies, and efforts to starve the oil and gas industry globally, as he characterized it — and that the new administration will run a more efficient operating environment with efficiencies from scale, certainty, and more credible capital markets, as he stated it.

Why it matters

The DOGE presence inside cabinet departments was the dominant controversy of the administration’s first weeks, and the Energy secretary’s on-the-record account — three badged reviewers, no nuclear secrets, no proprietary data — is the department’s baseline statement against which later disclosures measure.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright joins CNBC’s Brian Sullivan - February 7th, 2025”, 2025-02-07 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-02-07). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.