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Secretary Wright on Bloomberg's The Close: Powering Data Centers Without Raising Household Prices

September 30, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:08:58

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

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined Bloomberg’s The Close on September 30, 2025, from Long Island, New York, to discuss balancing data-center demand against household affordability. Wright said the key is to stop the rise of electricity prices, which he said rose about 25 percent during the Biden administration, and to use grid development for data centers to ultimately drive down consumer prices rather than treating the two as a trade-off.

He offered an example: a deal between Georgia Power and Google under which, he said, Georgia Power agreed to freeze its electricity rates for the next three years. He said the administration is telling hyperscalers and data-center developers that if they drive up electricity prices, no one will want AI or development in their communities.

On timetable, Wright said the first step is to stop shutting down reliable capacity: when he took office, he said, 100 gigawatts of coal and natural gas plants were slated to close within five years. He cited keeping a Michigan coal plant open, which he said ran hard all summer after a brownout in the area days later. He also described letting backup generators at data centers and other large facilities run when demand is high — not only when the grid fails — and ending subsidies for weather-dependent power sources, as he stated it.

Why it matters

The interview states the administration’s central grid bargain — AI growth must not raise household bills — and names the tools it is using: halting plant retirements, dispatching backup generation, and rate-freeze deals with hyperscalers.

Scoreboard watch

The Georgia example Wright cited — a Google data-center deal paired with a three-year electricity-rate freeze — is a checkable scoreboard item.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins “The Close” on Bloomberg - September 30, 2025”, 2025-09-30 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-09-30). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.