Secretary Wright Delivers Remarks at the Roxboro Coal Plant in North Carolina - October 2nd, 2026

Good afternoon, everybody. Is everybody ready to start? Well, it's my privilege as the member of Congress who represents this great part of North Carolina to welcome so many local officials, local business leaders, local civic leaders, and especially our Secretary of Energy, Secretary Wright. It's an honor to have you here, sir. And this is a very suitable backdrop for the At its very core, reliable, affordable energy is the bedrock of every community in this country. And right here in Person County, North Carolina, literally behind me, this community has been powering not just this county, but the entire region. And this administration, to its great credit, has seen something that works. They have seen something that has proven successful, and they are looking to multiply that success. And they have unleashed almost $30 million to amplify the successful mechanisms that we see behind us so that more people in this part of North Carolina, one of the most business friendly states in the country, one of the most desirable states in the country, so that we can keep up with the demand and keep leading not just the southeast, but the country and the world with cheap, affordable energy. So with that, it's my pleasure to introduce Secretary Wright. Thank you. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Thank you, Congressman. And thanks. Thanks, everyone, for being here today. Look, I love energy because energy makes our country great, makes our lives possible, allows us to live long, healthy, opportunity-rich lives. The United States of America was built to the nation we are today, the greatest nation in the history of the world, because of hundreds of large-scale coal plants like that behind us powered us. Not just powered, our electricity allowed us to build steel and cement and industrial materials that come from coal. President Trump got elected to make America strong again, to make America great again, and specifically to reindustrialize our country, to bring modern manufacturing to our country, to bring intelligence factories, also known as data centers, in so we can spur economic growth, generate revenues for local communities, drive up wages for workers. To do that, you need more energy, not less energy. We have, for almost two decades in our country, seen Democrats with an agenda that celebrated closing energy production facilities like the one behind us. In fact, the former Democratic governor of North Carolina put out a plan to reduce North Carolina greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030, which is four years from now, which means the closure of all of the coal plants in North Carolina and, of course, the closure of many more things beyond that. States have done this. California has done this. European nations have done that. And every one of them has driven their electricity prices up massively, has pushed businesses and job opportunities out of their state, and have increased the cost and burden to pay bills on their citizens. You have a state like California with everything going for it to generate the highest adjusted poverty rate in the nation and have an outflow, a scramble for the exits of its businesses and its citizens. No one should bring that burden upon their citizens of their state, of their country, of their community anywhere. President Trump was elected to drive to reverse this insanity of closing energy infrastructure, driving up prices in the United States, and pushing our industries overseas. This plant and so many around the country are what keep electricity prices affordable, that keep electricity secure. And frankly, in the last week in January, this last winter, winter storm Fern, we had enormous stress on the electricity grid in the East Coast. And I can say with high confidence that if the Democratic plans to close 17 gigawatts of coal plants that were in place to be closed in 2025, and the Trump administration Department of Energy stopped those, if we had not stopped those 17 gigawatts of coal plants, just like the two and a half gigawatts behind me, hundreds of Americans would have froze to death. This is the United States. We should not have our citizens freezing to death because we can't keep the lights on when it gets cold. And I know that's a fact because five years ago in Texas, they had a cold front, winter storm Uri that came down and over 200 Texans froze to death in Texas, an energy-rich state because of crazy policies. And they built a giant amount of wind and solar and they counted on it. It's not there at peak demand time. This Fern, this winter storm Fern was much bigger in extent than Uri would have been much more deadly. But unlike the previous storm, President Trump was president. We lost no generation in that thing. We had local distribution lines go down, but no large-scale transmission was lost. No generation assets were lost. And that was just bringing common sense to managing America's energy system. North Dakota and Duke Energy were our partner in that storm of how do we keep the lights on? We worked with Duke. They brought great plans. We need authority to run these plants longer than air quality standards say. We need to be able to access backup generators. And we said, please do, please do. Yes, absolutely. We granted all authorities to keep the lights on, keep people's homes warm, keep people's businesses running. That's the Trump administration goal. It's pretty simple. We want to lower costs for American citizens and bring more business in, drive up wages for American citizens. Thank you, sir. And our partnership right here, we've invested about $100 million together with Duke and coal plants across North Carolina to modernize them and upgrade them and extend their lives. So economic opportunities can grow in North Carolina and we can keep energy prices down. We also have a partnership with Duke Energy and here in North Carolina on transmission lines. To upgrade transmission lines, reconductor them, use dynamic line rating, just that just the transmission projects alone will save consumers $15 million a year in North Carolina. So it's quite a transformation. The Republican Party is about affordable, reliable, secure energy, and the Democratic Party for 17 years now have consistently advocated for policies that reduce American energy production, drive up American costs of energy and export our jobs overseas. We just see no reason whatsoever that should be imposed on anyone. Thank you, Duke Energy. Thank you, the tremendous state of North Carolina for bringing common sense back into fashion. And I hope we can keep heading that direction.