Energy Minister Chris Wright joins ‘Varney & Co.’ to discuss the government’s efforts to keep coal-fired power plants operational, the move to make technology companies pay for energy costs and the sale of Venezuelan oil.
Energy Secretary Christopher Wright confirmed this Trump administration‘s plan to keep U.S. coal-fired power plants running amid rising electricity prices and growing concerns about the reliability of the power grid due to growing demand.
“The states that have rushed to close their coal plants have also had to deal with rapidly rising electricity prices. Americans don’t like that. President Trump doesn’t like it.”
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A mixture of steam and pollutants is emitted from the Naughton coal-fired power plant on November 22, 2022 in Kemmerer, Wyo. (Natalie Behring/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Last week, White House officials reiterated the administration’s commitment to do so postpone retirement of certain coal-fired power plants that were on the verge of closing, a move supported by coal industry advocates but criticized by environmental groups.
The Trump administration also reinstated the National Coal Council, a federal advisory committee to the Energy Department whose charter expired in 2021 under the Biden administration before being revived in 2025.
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Chris Wright, US Secretary of Energy, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on Monday, October 6, 2025. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Wright told Stuart Varney that coal-fired power plants, which will be closed in some states, remain critical to the reliability of the electricity grid.
This is because electricity demand continues to rise, in part due to data centers associated with the expansion of artificial intelligence and other energy-intensive industries.
The government has also proposed that major technology companies – particularly data center operators – will bear a greater share of the costs of the new energy generation needed to meet rising demand..
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Energy Minister Chris Wright told ‘Varney & Co.’ that America must embrace coal to restore energy dominance, lower prices and end wasteful green subsidies.
“[Tech companies] need a lot more electricity in the United States, and they don’t want to drive up electricity prices,” Wright said.
“The Democrats and others say that [those companies are] the cause of rising electricity prices; it’s a great way to escape guilt. They are not the cause of the rising electricity price. In fact, they can be an important part of the solution, and that is what President Trump’s order seeks to do.”
