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Secretary Chris Wright Discusses China AI Race and NEPA Permitting With Dana Perino

July 16, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:04:16

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

What happened

Dana Perino presented an energy comparison — China at 126 quadrillion BTU to the United States’ 102 — and asked whether that reflected population or China’s drive to beat the U.S. in the AI race. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said it is China’s drive to win the AI race: the figures were total energy consumption, China uses almost triple the industrial energy and twice the electricity, because energy makes manufactured products and AI, he said. The U.S. has huge advantages in technology, science, and private business and leads the AI race today, Wright said, but under Biden-Harris policy the U.S. would have lost it by making everything too hard to build, with a growing list of blackouts, according to the interview.

On permitting, Perino noted NEPA reviews can take five years just to break ground and asked whether projects the president had announced would actually get off the ground within the term. Wright said permitting reform is absolutely essential: all agencies with NEPA regulations, including the Energy Department, released new versions on July 1 stating what is expected, returning NEPA to the original intent of the law — an environmental check on a project’s impacts, not an exhaustive study that can be sued and litigated for years, as he described it.

Why it matters

Wright ties the AI race directly to energy production and permitting speed, and the July 1 NEPA revisions he cited are the administration’s concrete mechanism for making announced projects buildable within the term.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: Wright’s statement that agencies including the Energy Department released revised NEPA regulations on July 1, 2025, as he stated it, is a dated, checkable claim flagged for the scoreboard editor.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Fox News’ Dana Perino - July 16, 2025”, 2025-07-16 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-07-16). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.