“We’ve never used energy as a political weapon. Never,” he said.
Wright argued that European governments had weakened their own energy security by curbing domestic oil and gas production while remaining dependent on hydrocarbons. U.S. exports, he stressed, are handled by private companies bound by contracts, not directed by the government for geopolitical leverage.
A day earlier, Wright had intensified U.S. criticism of the IEA, accusing it of drifting from what he claimed was its core energy security mandate by embracing net zero goals. The agency, he said, had shifted toward an “anti-energy” agenda that risks driving up prices and constraining supply.
On Tuesday, he warned the U.S. could withdraw from the IEA if it failed to change course — a suggestion rebuffed by several countries, including the U.K., Austria and France.
But on Thursday, Wright softened his tone. “We desperately do not want to withdraw … We just want to bring it back to reality. We don’t want to leave,” he said.
He argued that Washington’s push to redirect the agency had attracted meaningful — if mostly private — backing. “There’s a fair amount of support. Most of it’s quiet behind the scenes,” Wright said, vowing to use “all the pressure we have” to steer the agency back toward energy security and “energy addition.”