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Secretary Wright Tells Fox & Friends Data Centers Are a Tool to Stop Rising Electricity Prices

July 15, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:05:17

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

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined Fox & Friends to respond to New York’s announced temporary ban on building new data centers, which state officials justified on cost, water use, and carbon grounds, with critics including Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman warning it could put the United States further behind China in the artificial intelligence race. Wright said Governor Hochul had the issue exactly backwards.

Wright argued that data centers are the best tool available now to stop electricity prices from rising, rather than a cause of higher bills for local ratepayers. He said there is no reason for energy to be expensive and scarce in the United States and blamed high prices on poor policy choices driven by Democrats.

The segment closed with the host musing that data centers might be placed in emptying big-city skyscrapers rather than rural landscapes, while acknowledging the commercial activity they bring, and thanking the Secretary for joining.

Why it matters

The interview is the administration’s direct rebuttal to state-level data-center moratoriums, staking out the position that AI infrastructure lowers, rather than raises, household energy costs — the opposite of the rationale New York officials gave for the pause.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Joey Jones on Fox News’s Fox & Friends - July 15, 2026”, 2026-07-15 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-07-15). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.