President Trump’s U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, appeared on Fox News on Monday to address the rising energy demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the rising cost of electricity for American consumers.
Wright said providing energy for the growing number of data centers in the U.S. and keeping electricity bills down “is going to require a lot of changes.”
Wright said: “We’ve seen surging American oil production, surging natural gas production over the last 10 years but not electricity production,” and blamed the Biden administration for “wanting to close power plants much more than they wanted to build power plants.”
Wright added, “Of course we stopped that…we’ve made it easy and quick to power new power plants. We’re going to enable existing power plants to up their output. We’re going to take backup generators that are already at data centers or behind the back of a Walmart and bring those on when we need extra electricity production. We’re going to do a lot of creative things.”
The Secretary added: “So we will find tens of gigawatts of new transition capacity on our existing grid.”
Wright: We will take backup generators already at data centers or behind the back of a Walmart and bring those on when we need extra electricity production pic.twitter.com/ppCQJ6v37q
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 24, 2025
Some who object to the proliferation of AI data centers across the United States drew attention to Wright’s choice of words — specifically “we’ve made it easy and quick to power new power plants” — noting that the methane-powered turbines being used to power such large AI data centers including Elon Musk‘s xAI “Colossus” in Memphis are nicknamed “quick and dirty” and, according to lawmakers in Tennessee, are “poisoning” communities.
Tennessee state Representative Justin J. Pearson, a Democrat who represents Memphis, said: “xAI, Elon Musk’s company, is operating 35 gas turbines in southwest Memphis, in the neighborhood where myself and my entire family lives. This is horrific news. They are increasing the amount of nitrogen dioxide, which causes smog and continues to harm people with asthma, by potentially 30 to 60%.”
Pearson added: “It’s no coincidence that if you are African American in this country, you’re 75% more likely to live near a toxic hazardous waste facility. It’s no accident that in this community, we’re four times more likely to have cancer in our bodies. It’s no accident that in this community, there are over 17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities surrounding us — now 18 with Elon Musk’s xAI plant.”
Note: There are eight Walmart Supercenters surrounding the city of Memphis.