00:00What happens when you fire your oil experts right before launching a war?
00:03Laid off employees from the Bureau of Energy Resources say the Trump administration is
00:08finding out the hard way.
00:09In July 2025, DOGE cut the Bureau of Energy Resources, an 80-person team tasked with maintaining
00:17international energy diplomacy.
00:19They did this by briefing the Secretary of State on what was happening in the global
00:25energy sector, as well as communicate with private sector energy companies and foreign
00:30ministries on how to navigate challenges in the sector.
00:33With the U.S. locked in conflict with Iran for over a month now, former ENR officials told
00:38me that the Trump administration is poorly prepared to navigate the energy disruptions happening
00:43currently.
00:44But the State Department told me that ENR officials who were not fired were absorbed into a different
00:50bureau and those energy policy teams are performing better than ever.
00:54If these cuts hadn't have happened, ENR officials told me that they would have talked with foreign
01:00ministries and U.S. embassies to identify vulnerable infrastructure in the Gulf region so that in
01:06case of an attack, they could divert oil and gas supplies.
01:09These officials could have also reduced the element of surprise that some of these private
01:14sector oil companies were facing.
01:16In non-war times, the ENR was often the first call that these private sector energy companies
01:20would make.
01:21Even after the Iran war, the consequences of the doge cuts on the State Department will
01:26likely still be felt.
01:27And one former ENR official told me there was expertise in institutional capacity that was
01:33thrown into the garbage.
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