January 07, 2026 11:40 AM UTC

Energy Secretary Chris Wright Adds to Venezuela Confusion

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• by: Colorado Pols

Secretary of State (and National Security Adviser and National Archivist) Marco Rubio held a private briefing for U.S. Senators this morning in order to “explain” however the hell the Trump administration is planning to “run” Venezuela following last week’s snatch-and-grab of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

As The New York Times reports, Rubio’s comments to the media afterward were less than inspiring:

Speaking on Capitol Hill after the closed-door briefing for U.S. senators, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is outlining a U.S. plan for Venezuela, telling reporters that the administration is “not just winging it.”

If you have to say you aren’t “just winging it,” then you’re probably “just winging it.”

Meanwhile, The New York Times reports in a separate story that Colorado’s own Chris Wright, the current Secretary of Energy and chief climate change denier, told investors at an energy conference in Miami that the U.S. would be plundering selling Venezuelan oil for the foreseeable future:

The energy secretary, Chris Wright, said on Wednesday that the United States intended to maintain significant control over Venezuela’s oil industry, including by overseeing the sale of the country’s production “indefinitely.”

“Going forward we will sell the production that comes out of Venezuela into the marketplace,” Mr. Wright said at a Goldman Sachs energy conference near Miami.

Mr. Wright’s remarks came after President Trump said late Tuesday that Venezuela would soon hand over tens of millions of barrels of oil to the United States.

Venezuela would send 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil, or up to two months’ worth of daily production, to the United States, Mr. Trump said in a social media post, adding that he would control the profits from those sales…

…It was not clear what legal authority the Trump administration would operate under to oversee Venezuela’s sales of oil. [Pols emphasis]

Wright’s comments should only add to the narrative confusion for Republicans about the Trump administration’s half-baked plans for Venezuela. As the Times continues:

As of Wednesday morning, leaders in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, had not commented publicly on the U.S. government’s plans or confirmed the existence of an agreement with the Trump administration.

Mr. Wright said the Trump administration was in “active dialogue” with Venezuela’s leadership, as well as U.S. oil giants that have operated in the country. Executives from some of the largest Western oil producers are expecting to meet Mr. Trump at the White House on Friday afternoon, according to people familiar with the plans.

If the United States is now “running” Venezuela, as President Trump claimed last week, wouldn’t that mean that the Trump administration is in “active dialogue” with itself? None of this makes much sense.

Trump has also said that American oil companies are eager to spend billions of dollars to gin up Venezuela’s oil production, but it will be interesting to learn what Big Oil executives actually think about the situation. While it’s true that Venezuela is home to massive oil deposits, experts say it would take years of expensive work to get the country’s infrastructure to a place where it can actually extract significant amounts of “black gold” from its rich reserves.