Senator Coons presses Secretary Wright on rising gas prices and higher energy costs amid Trump’s war in Iran

"We're going to see long-term impacts from this war in Iran, impacts at the pump, impacts in manufacturing, impacts in farming, and the cost of food."

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) pressed Secretary of Energy Chris Wright today on rising gas prices and higher energy costs as a result of President Trump's war in Iran, as well as proposed cuts to key energy programs such as the Weatherization Assistance Program, during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the budget request for the Department of Energy.

During the hearing, Senator Coons noted that gas prices have jumped sharply since last year and warned that the economic fallout from the war is hitting far beyond fuel costs. Pointing to damage to oil and gas production in the Persian Gulf, Senator Coons said the conflict is also driving up costs for manufacturers, farmers, and families in Delaware and around the country.

"A year ago, gas was $3 a gallon. Today, it's $3.90," said Senator Coons."We're going to see long-term impacts from this war in Iran, impacts at the pump, impacts in manufacturing, impacts in farming and the cost of food."

"I think we ought to wrap it up as soon as we possibly reasonably can, but I think we're going to be paying for the costs, and so will the average American for at least another year to go," Senator Coons continued.

Senator Coons also pressed Secretary Wright on the administration's proposal to eliminate the Weatherization Assistance Program, a bipartisan and cost-effective program that has helped thousands of Delawareans cut their home heating bills. The Department of Energy has estimated that weatherization upgrades help each household save $372 in energy bills each year.

"Your budget zeros it out. Help me understand why your budget zeros it out," said Senator Coons.

When Secretary Wright said zeroing out the program was "just a matter of priorities," Senator Coons made clear the administration was choosing to walk away from a highly effective program that lowers costs for working families. Senator Coons noted he is continuing to work with Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) on bipartisan, bicameral legislation to reauthorize the program.

A video and transcript of Senator Coons' testimony is available below.

WATCH HERE.

SENATOR COONS: I look forward to talking with you about the relevance of AI, quantum, and defense. I'm the senior Democrat on defense and intelligence appropriations, and the development of a cryptologically relevant quantum computer is an absolutely critical issue. And the announcement of the Mythos, a large language model - just in the last week - and what it's capable of doing, at both penetrating our classified systems and our adversaries, is also a watershed moment. We should be talking about this across DOE and DOD. I'll look forward to that - look forward to hearing more about Oak Ridge.

Mr. Secretary, you know, there is so much we can and should be working on together. Now, I'm just going to give you a little bit of career advice. In your first five minutes, you criticized and attacked the Biden administration five times, and then in the next two answers, four more times. You're 14, 15 months into an administration. Let's look forward, okay? The idea that they were not 'unsticking any major problems' when they had to recover from a global pandemic and an economic collapse - I could waste all my time just bickering with you about it, but I don't want to do that. I'd like to find ways to work together to move forward.

I agree with you that we are at the edge of a nuclear renaissance. I'm excited about the new models being developed. I'm excited about what the nuclear lab in Idaho is making possible. I'm puzzled by a cut of $250 million to nuclear energy in your budget. Help me understand that proposal in your budget.

WRIGHT: Yeah, it's, it's, it's not actually a cut. It's just broken up into two categories. There's a separate category of funding that says baseload power, and there's a few hundred million [dollars] for nuclear in that. The nuclear budget we propose is pretty much flat or up a hair year over year. Same thing with the science budget. I know people think we cut the science budget significantly, but it's-

SENATOR COONS: $1.2 billion is what this says.

WRIGHT: And, and, and, offset by a little more than $1.2 billion in AI and quantum, which is basically part of the science budget, just categorized. That's across all the labs and all the programs. So yes, I know we probably should have had more clarification. Materially, looks like we made big cuts to those two things. We just classify things a little differently. Thank you for raising those.

SENATOR COONS: I'd love to be effectively persuaded of that. ARPA-E - something I've been actively engaged in the whole time I've been on this committee. You were just at the annual ARPA-E Summit. At least, the agenda of the most recent ARPA-E Summit says they're helping with data center energy and with the application of AI, grid stabilization and security. At least the version I've got here, you're giving it a 40% cut, $150 million. Why?

WRIGHT: Let me clarify that as well. So the budget we're proposing is, is basically slightly up from the budget we proposed last year. You here in the House and Senate plussed-up the ARPA-E budget, and we'd be very happy to work with you again on that.

SENATOR COONS: Good, because I think it's been a functional, creative, innovative resource, not just for the department, but for the country.

Let me read you a sentence: "The Weatherization Assistance Program is a proven, cost-effective way to permanently decrease energy usage while reducing Americans' home energy bills." Who do you think said that? Senator Collins - my co-sponsor of a bill to reauthorize the Weatherization Assistance Program. You cut to zero a roughly $400 million program, one that I've seen, year over year, help thousands of Delawareans cut their home heating bills 30 to 50%. I worked with Catholic Charities on implementing it when I was a county executive. There was a study by Oak Ridge - I'm sorry, Senator Hagerty left - they concluded that for every dollar invested in the Weatherization Assistance Program federally, there was $4.15 in benefits, both energy savings and health savings. Why would you zero this program out?

WRIGHT: So there's a lot of ways to help low-income people with energy costs. It has been a lifelong passion of mine, so I'm fully aligned with that. I know last year, we restructured that program a little bit. It had a social cost of carbon and climate impact stuff, in a program that's really supposed to help low-income people. We cleaned it up last year. We got those funds out last year. We will get those funds out by the end of the summer.

SENATOR COONS: Your budget zeros it out. Help me understand why your budget zeros it out.

WRIGHT: It's just a matter of priorities, and is it the cleanest, most effective way -

SENATOR COONS: Yes. Yes.

WRIGHT: I would love to have an offline dialogue with you about that and look at that. We - I - share the mission that you have there.

SENATOR COONS: I suspect that Senator Collins and I, as we continue to pursue our bipartisan, bicameral reauthorization bill, would also - well, I don't mean to speak for her, but I am quoting her - we'll find a way to make our way to your office to talk about why, at least I believe, it's a highly efficient program.

A year ago, gas was $3 a gallon. Today, it's $3.90. I look forward to finding out whether your prediction is correct that it won't go down until next year, or the president's prediction that it will come down faster. I think we need to find ways to reduce the price at the pump for a majority of Americans - and I note the chairman has cleared his throat at me.

WRIGHT: Senator, I have to correct one thing. I never said gas prices wouldn't go down until next year. Never, never said such a thing. There was a thing on the news that I said they might not be below $3 a gallon. I didn't know when, and you know, but you don't - I left some uncertainty in there, but I should also share your desire for lower gasoline prices. I'm with you.

SENATOR COONS: About 10% of the oil and gas production capability of the gulf has been destroyed in the current war in Iran. It's also impacting fertilizer - farmers are planting where I'm from. It's also impacting helium, which is critical for health care and for semiconductors. We're going to see long-term impacts from this war in Iran: impacts at the pump, impacts in manufacturing, impacts in farming and the cost of food. I think we ought to wrap it up as soon as we possibly reasonably can, but I think we're going to be paying for the costs, and so will the average American, for at least another year to go. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.