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Secretary Wright Visits Rinnai Plant and Discusses the Tankless Water Heater Rule With Harris Faulkner, May 2, 2025

May 2, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:04:45

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

What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined Fox News’ Harris Faulkner on May 2, 2025, from the Rinnai America plant in Georgia, according to the Department of Energy posting of the segment. The segment reported, as stated on air, that a Biden-era rule that would have banned some tankless water heaters by 2029 was on hold, that congressional Republicans were working to overturn it, and that Rinnai’s president said the rule put hundreds of jobs at the Georgia plant at risk. Wright said, as he stated it, that hundreds of jobs at the factory were at stake — if the rule had gone into effect the factory would have shut — and that a million Americans have low-cost hot water because of the plant’s products, with millions more to benefit from it staying open; he characterized, as he stated it, the prior rule as telling Americans they could not buy the low-cost version of a product and had to buy the Cadillac.

Wright framed the issue, as he stated it, as freedom of choice and cost: energy goes into every product Americans consume, and President Trump’s agenda, as he stated it, is to bring prices down and let people buy what they want rather than forcing expensive appliances or electric vehicles. He added, as he stated it, that China is the biggest importer of oil and natural gas in the world while the United States is the largest oil producer and by far the largest natural gas exporter, putting the U.S. in a strong position to make more products at home.

Why it matters

The segment is the appliance-regulation fight in miniature: a single factory, a single rule, and the Energy Secretary’s stated case that consumer choice and plant jobs outweigh the prior administration’s efficiency mandate.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Fox News’ Harris Faulkner - May 2, 2025”, 2025-05-02 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-05-02). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.