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Secretary Wright Discusses Ending Green Subsidies and Reviving Coal With Stuart Varney

July 2, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:04:49

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined Stuart Varney on Fox Business on July 2, 2025, according to the Department of Energy video.

Asked whether the bill opens the door to solar and wind projects using Chinese components, Wright said those makers dominate components today, but the bigger issue is getting rid of the subsidies: the bill is a huge win, President Trump was elected to end the Green New Scam, and subsidies had paid people to make the grid more expensive and less reliable, as he argued.

Wright said he is bringing back the National Coal Council to strengthen national and economic security. He said coal has been the biggest source of electricity globally for 100 years and is today by far, and that together with nuclear and natural gas it is over 75% of U.S. electricity, as he stated the share, adding steel cannot be made without coal, as he put it.

Wright said critics could not hold the policy up, and cited using emergency powers three or four weeks earlier to keep a coal plant open in southwest Michigan, followed two days later by a blackout in the Midwest independent system operator region — why, he argued, coal plants must stay open so lights, air conditioning and factories keep running, as he described the sequence. He defined Trump policy as maximum energy output that is affordable, reliable and secure, against 30 years of subsidies for intermittent sources, as he characterized it. On the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, he said the money is in the bill to finish fixes on a reserve drained for political reasons, that planned additional sales from the prior administration would be cancelled, and that a little money exists to start refilling, as he stated the provisions.

Why it matters

The segment is the coal revival stated plainly — council restored, a plant kept open by emergency order, and subsidies ended — under Wright’s affordable, reliable, secure test.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Fox Business’ Stuart Varney - July 2, 2025”, 2025-07-02 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-07-02). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.