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Wright on Varney & Co.: $50 Million Defense Production Act Investment to Make Virginia's Grid More Reliable, Oct. 16, 2026

October 16, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:02:10

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

What happened

In a Fox Business Varney & Co. report from Lynchburg, Virginia, carried on the Energy Department’s channel, a correspondent said Energy Secretary Chris Wright was set to announce a major investment in American energy, and reported that $50 million would go to making Virginia’s electric grid more reliable, according to the report (transcript rendered in Arabic by the caption service and paraphrased here from that rendering). The report said the grid serves military installations and a large concentration of data centers in Virginia, and that the funding comes under the Defense Production Act.

The report said Wright told the correspondent the infrastructure had been under-invested in for years and that policy had drifted away from providing more reliable, affordable, and secure electricity, arguing the focus should be on the American consumer rather than climate policies, according to the report. It noted that President Trump declared a national energy emergency on taking office and that the Working Families Tax Cuts provided $1 billion for energy infrastructure projects critical to national security, and it cited an expected 32 percent rise in energy use by 2030, according to the segment.

The report also said Wright rejected reports that the administration planned to roll back sanctions on shadow-fleet tankers to boost oil flows and lower prices during the Iran conflict, saying there is no sanctions reduction or policy change toward sanctioned oil or shadow-fleet vessels, but that officials are studying allowing legitimate shipping companies to buy already-halted sanctioned vessels to add capacity, according to the report. Wright said any such sales would need Treasury vetting and could take time, according to the segment.

Why it matters

The segment records two stated administration positions in one appearance: grid-reliability spending in Virginia justified on national-security grounds, and an on-the-record denial of sanctions relief for shadow-fleet tankers, attributed to Wright by the report.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Fox Business’ Varney & Co. – October 16, 2026”, 2026-10-16 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-10-16). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.