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Secretary Wright Discusses Warming Trade-offs, Nuclear Expansion, and Energy Prices With Stuart Varney, Feb. 19, 2025

February 19, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:05:44

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

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined FOX Business’s Stuart Varney on February 19, 2025, according to the Department of Energy posting of the interview. Asked about his past statements on global warming, Wright said, as he stated it, that everything in life has trade-offs, that a warmer planet with more CO2 is better for growing plants — the world, as he stated the figure, has 14 percent more greenery than 40 years ago — and that far more people die of the cold than of the heat; warming, he said, has pluses as well as negatives but is nowhere near the world’s biggest problem. He said, as he stated it, that the Green New Deal was in the process of being killed off and that President Trump was elected to bring common sense back to Washington.

On nuclear energy, Wright said, as he stated the figures, that nuclear fell from 6 percent of global energy 20 years ago to 4 percent today because government strangled it, and that expansion is a process of years even with deregulation. On prices, he said, as he stated it, that the U.S. was producing more than 13 million barrels of oil a day — more than ever — but that infrastructure is the biggest limiter on production, with new project announcements coming in the following weeks and months. Asked about waste at the Energy Department, Wright said, as he stated it, that in a little over two weeks in the seat the department had found many millions of dollars spent on things adding nothing of value and had cut needless expenditures.

Why it matters

The Varney interview is Wright’s first-months statement of his whole brief — climate trade-offs, nuclear timelines, infrastructure as the production bottleneck, and early waste findings — in one sitting.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright joins FOX Business’s Stuart Varney - February 19th, 2025”, 2025-02-19 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-02-19). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.