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Wright Tells Varney Coal Is Central to Energy Dominance and Defends Nearly $8 Billion in Cancelled Projects

October 3, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:02:24

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

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Stuart Varney that coal is the way for America to achieve energy dominance, saying the Obama and Biden administrations waged all-out war on coal, closing reliable power plants, subsidizing unreliable ones, and driving energy prices up. He said President Trump was elected to bring down energy prices and bring back common sense.

Asked about clean coal, Wright said the emissions from coal that matter are particulate matter and pollutants such as sulfur oxides, and that clean coal means pollution control systems so that what comes out of the stack is water vapor and carbon dioxide. He called reducing carbon dioxide emissions expensive and wholly unnecessary, with very little benefit.

Asked about cancelling almost $8 billion worth of energy projects, concentrated in blue states, Wright said the administration is punishing wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars, not states for their politics. He cited examples he described as wasteful, including $70 million to decarbonize mac and cheese, decarbonizing Uber Eats in San Francisco, and subsidizing e-bike lanes in Portland, and said if California wants to spend $600 million more in ways that raise its electricity prices, Californians can pay for it themselves rather than taxpayers in the other 49 states.

Why it matters

The exchange is a compact statement of two administration positions at once: coal reframed as clean when its conventional pollutants are controlled, and project cancellations defended on spending grounds against charges of political targeting.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Fox Business’s Stuart Varney - October 3, 2025”, 2025-10-03 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-10-03). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.