The Wall Street Journal's coverage of threats to the power grid gets twisted on Fox Business

The Journal explicitly credits solar for reducing the risk of blackouts, but on Fox Business “blue state anti-fossil fuel policies” are “by far the biggest threat”

Special Programs Climate & Energy

Written by Allison Fisher

Published

During the July 7 edition of Fox Business’ Varney & Co., guest host David Asman claimed that a recent Wall Street Journal article warned that a “perfect storm” of “high temperatures, new A.I. data centers pulling a lot of energy and those blue state anti-fossil fuel policies” are threatening the stability of the electric grid.

In reality, the article explicitly cites “an influx of 58.5 gigawatts of new resources, dominated by solar and battery storage” for reducing “the widespread blackout risks the country faced in recent years.” In fact, nowhere in the article are “anti-fossil fuel policies” cited as a threat, nor does it suggest blue states are more vulnerable to blackouts than red states.  

The Journal does make clear that “hotter-than-usual” temperatures and other climate-driven disruptions — like droughts, wildfires and hurricanes — are not only a threat to the grid but are driving up electricity costs. The article notes that “summer cooling costs have increased nearly 40% since 2020, driven by a combination of rising electricity prices and hotter summers.”  

Relatedly, CNN reported yesterday on a new analysis that found “the collective impact of the administration’s actions will raise costs on American households by more than half a trillion dollars by 2040.” To date, “382 clean energy projects have been canceled or stalled since Trump’s election,” according to Climate Power. Even some Fox figures have questioned killing renewable energy projects at a time of rising electricity cost and demand.

From the July 7, 2026, edition of Fox Business' Varney & Co.

DAVID ASMAN [FOX BUSINESS HOST]: Take a look at this Wall Street journal article, “The ‘Five Alarm’ Risk Facing the Power Grid This Summer.” It talks about a perfect storm, if we have high temperatures, new A.I. data centers pulling a lot of energy, and those blue state anti-fossil fuel policies. People are really worried, particularly in blue states about blackouts because of all of this. Is that a possibility?

CHRIS WRIGHT: [US ENERGY SECRETARY]: David, and the last one is by far the biggest threat. These are blue state policies and they were Obama administration policies and Biden administration policies. Seventeen years ago, the Democrats decided they're the party of expensive energy. They're the party of unreality. We're going to oppose fossil fuels even though they're 80% of American energy and 80% of global energy, and we're going to close coal plants and make it hard to build new gas plants, close nuclear plants, and bet the farm on the sun and the wind. That was a disastrous bet that drove high electricity prices and stopped any growth of American electricity production. 

Fortunately, with the working families tax cut, we just — July 4 — we just passed the day that those subsidies are no longer available if you start construction on a project today. Ironically spending hundreds of billions of dollars on government subsidies was a driver of increased electricity prices. Normally you have a huge subsidy and you push the price of something down. They lost twice: spend massive subsidies, make electricity more expensive. But the Trump administration is reversing all of that. You will see an end to the rise of the electricity prices and our pragmatic policies will keep the lights on and keep the air conditioners running this summer, but it will be a massive challenge given 17 years of Democrat policies degrading the quality of our electric grid.