Energy secretary on protests in Iran and the future of Venezuela

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Secretary of Energy Chris Wright spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday to talk about the protests in Iran.

According to Brennan, Iran is reliant on oil to keep its "government controlled economy afloat," and said President Donald Trump has been briefed on military options.

When asked what the U.S. is willing to do to help, Secretary Wright said:

"The president has been very outspoken about wanting to have freedom and rule of law and capitalism and great relations with the United States return. So we'll see. I think his moral support has been strong. Certainly, he's taken a strong stance against the mullahs in Iran in disabling their nuclear program. I think the people in Iran are rising up because they feel there's a strong America that has their back. I won't go into the specifics there, but we wish them well, and we'd love to see a free and democratic Iran again."

During the interview, Brennan and Wright talked about the future in Venezuela, with President Trump saying Venezuela has the U.S. protecting them.

This prompted Brennan to ask the secretary if the U.S. military is providing security guarantees for American companies, to which Wright said:

"We're not doing that right now, but what we, what he means, is we're changing the game for what's happening in the ground in Venezuela. Venezuela has purchased $20 billion of Russian weapons. They got Cuban mercenaries there. They supply oil to Cuba. They, they harbor the Hezbollah's headquarters for the Western Hemisphere. Venezuela has been a very dangerous, very destabilized place going down the tubes. And with the United States influence now by controlling the sale of their oil and therefore the flow of funds into the country, we think we're going to, we will see relatively rapid change, improvement on the ground in Venezuela. This is a process. We're only eight days into the process, but it's off to a strong start."

Later in the interview, Brennan and Wright talked about a judge backing a bid by an American hedge fund to purchase Citgo Petroleum, with the Treasury Department still needing to approve the deal.

This led Brennan to ask Wright if he wants to preserve Venezuelan ownership of Citgo, and if he wants to have America to have financial stake in it, and the secretary said:

"That's going to be up to American businesses. That's certainly a very real possibility. The Citgo sale is part of, is part of bringing redress to creditors of the United States for the Venezuelan Government. And of course, one, one of the capital providers in that transaction is a hedge fund provider you just mentioned. There's lots of American investors and American refining entrepreneurs that are involved in that so to take Venezuelan owned refineries that are in the United States and legally through an auction process, transfer them to American owners and American entrepreneurs in the refining business. I think that's fantastic."

Brennan followed up by asking how he will respond to allegations that some Trump donors are going to get preferential treatment, and Wright said, "I can assure you that is absolutely not the case. Absolutely not the case. Think of what President Trump has done for the American oil and gas industry. He's driven down the price of oil."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Wright, click here.