Chris Wright Shuts Down Laughing NYT Crowd: What’s Funny About 80 Percent Higher Power Bills?

There's nothing funny about rising energy costs, to the people who are least able to afford them. Every attempt at "green" energy has raised the cost of said energy. The cost of energy is at the heart of everything else in the economy, and "green" attempts raise those costs.

But when Energy Secretary Chris Wright brought up those considerations speaking at a New York Times Climate Forward stage interview with NYT Climate Reporter David Gelles, the audience responded with titters. 

At this point Secretary Wright let them have, as my grandmother would have put it, a darn good piece of his mind.

🚨WATCH: @NYTimes audience laughs about human health impacts of Green New Scam policies and @SecretaryWright shuts it down:

“WHAT’S FUNNY?…These are real issues making electricity 80% more expensive.” pic.twitter.com/FxhjRdS3UC

— U.S. Department of Energy (@ENERGY) September 26, 2026

Here's how that exchange went:

Chris Wright: We have dramatically reduced particulate, PM2.5, pollutant that matters the most.

David Gelles: When you say we have, that over the course of ...

Chris Wright: We meaning the country. The last 50 years. 50 years, not this administration.

David Gelles: But it's going up now. How... It's going up now.

Christ Wright: Is it going up meaningfully? In a sense that's going to impact human health? And the answer is no. Look, it's funny that humor... Meaningful is a matter. Like, if you want zero risk, never leave your house. The question is what's meaningful. If you're 20 percent above ambient background of 25 percent above ambient background, it does not change human health outcomes at all. What you care about is meaningful rise in pollutants, and the impact to human health. That's the data. That's the science. Maybe it's humorous in this audience, but these are real issues. Making electricity 80 percent more expensive. That's a killer. Low income people die in the wintertime at a much higher rate than they die in the summertime. Because when heating is expensive, and utilities are expensive, they turn their homes to lower temperatures. And this kills people. Those are real things. They're not laugh lines for you guys. But this is about true human health, and doing the math.

Here's the thing: Air pollution in the United States has been steadily declining for at least 50 years. We aging Boomers remember when the air in some of our major cities was only marginally safe to breathe; it's just not like that anymore. But crowds like the Climate Forward are pushing us to work straight through the stage of diminished returns, not seeming to care about the impact of expensive energy or that impact on (forgive me for this cliche) the people least able to afford it.

And, yes, oil prices have spiked in recent months, in large part because of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. But just because one factor causes prices to rise, in no way means we should ignore other factors that cause prices to rise. And all of the "green" energy schemes favored by people like these climate scolds will make electricity in particular more expensive, while attempting to implement a solution that's in desperate search of a problem, namely, air pollution.

Still need more reasons to get out and vote in November? Listen to Chris Wright. Look at his record. Look at what happens to energy prices every time Democrats are in control. Vote accordingly.

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