Trump to Push Big Tech to Fund New Power Plants

0:02Amid growing resistance to new data centers and fears of pricier electricity, President Trump pushes tech companies to pay for new power plants. Plus, sidelined by Washington, Canada's leader finds a friend in China. We must be ambitious. We must work at speed and scale to find new partners to diversify our trade and attract unprecedented levels of investment in our country. And why potential U.S. strikes on Iran might not help anti-regime protesters there. It's Friday, January 16th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM edition of What's News, The top headlines and business stories moving your world today.

0:46In an unprecedented move, the Trump administration is set to propose that America's largest grid operator, PJM, hold an emergency auction in which tech companies would bid on 15-year contracts for new power plants. That would effectively formalize a bring-your-own-power approach to data center construction that's already taken hold across much of the U.S. and which the administration has begun to embrace. In October, Energy Secretary Chris Wright instructed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to draft rules giving it oversight of how giant data centers connect to the grid, a process typically overseen by states.

1:23Officials argue that the change could get data centers connected to the grid faster and easier, though some state regulators are pushing back, saying the plan encroaches on their authority. Canada and China are setting aside years of frosty relations and pledging to work closer on agriculture, energy and finance. Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit to Beijing this week is being seen as Ottawa's pivot away from the United States. Peter Seidel is the journal's Asia political editor. It can be risky, Peter, to read too much into a bilateral meeting, but the significance of this visit seems pretty straightforward.

1:59Tell us why you've been tracking this. Well, it's been closely watched because of the sort of decaying relationship between Canada and the U.S. And Carney has said that the close relationship with the U.S. as it once was is now over and that Canada needs to find new partners. It's also significant from a China perspective in that China's sort of on a global charm offensive to step into the breach where U.S. partners are feeling spurned by Trump and are looking for other relationships around the world. Peter, the details are, of course, still coming in here, but it sounds like there is some substance to this.

2:39Carney saying that Chinese EVs are going to be allowed into the Canadian market. This is something he hopes leads to Chinese investment in Canada's auto and clean energy sectors. And meanwhile, Canadian farmers are going to be getting more access into the Chinese market. Yes, that's really significant because the products you mentioned have been significant obstacles on both sides. Canada's kept a 100 % tariff on Chinese EVs and Canada's canola farmers are keen to get into the Chinese market where there's a 76 % tariff. So any progress there is both significant for Canada's economy and symbolic for a sort of progress and a trade relationship when Canada's relationship with the U.S.

3:24is on the wane. It's also important to recognize that China is Canada's number two trading partner. Its two-way trade is about$80 billion over the past 12 months, whereas with the U.S., it's$1 trillion during that period. So China can't really replace the U.S. as a trading partner, but it can give a boost to Canada. That was Journal-Asia political editor Peter Seidel. Back in Washington, President Trump has the Nobel Peace Prize he's long coveted, sort of. I presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize. That was Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who made that gesture yesterday during a visit to the White House, but who emerged with no public backing from Trump.

4:16On social media, the president called Machado a wonderful woman who's been through so much. But the Trump administration says it will continue to work with Venezuela's acting president, Delce Rodriguez, who was Nicolas Maduro's deputy. Machado's previous offer to share her prize with Trump had provoked rare public clarification from the Nobel Committee that the award can't be transferred to another person.

4:42And we are exclusively reporting that the Food and Drug Administration has quietly removed several webpages saying that cell phones pose no health risks. That comes as the Department of Health and Human Services launches a new study on cell phone radiation. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and some of his allies have long pointed to mobile phones as a potential source of illnesses, including cancer, though many mainstream scientific institutions, including the FDA, previously concluded there isn't adequate proof to link health problems to wireless devices. An HHS spokesperson confirmed the removal was intended to clear old conclusions while the agency works to identify potential research gaps.

5:24Coming up, correspondent Suna Rasmussen discusses the unpredictable consequences of potential U.S. strikes on Iran, plus a look at the day's top markets news and the argument that dressing up leads to better behavior on airplanes. That's after the break.

5:45The U.S. could still strike Iran. As we mentioned on our PM show, officials have made it clear that option remains on the table. But as the journal's Suna Rasmussen is here to discuss, should President Trump pull back from his threat of intervening on behalf of opponents of the regime, he wouldn't be the first to realize the limits of what missiles can accomplish. Suna, this historical framing of the current situation seems important. How does it factor into the White House's calculations about how to proceed? What we're hearing is that Trump wanted an option for a big U.S. strike, one that could potentially decapitate or severely damage the regime.

6:23But U.S. military intervention in Iran is quite complicated. And almost no matter what option Trump went for, whether it's a big, spectacular strike against the government's facilities, whether it's a strike on security forces, on Iran's nuclear capabilities, no matter what it is, it is unclear what effect, if any, it would have on the ground and how it would change the power balance between protesters and the government. I mean, that's the key point, right? Because taking out a nuclear facility is one thing with a missile or many of them or bombs like we saw last year. Changing a 40-year-old regime is quite another.

6:57Yeah, and I think it's worth just keeping in mind what it actually takes to have a popular uprising succeed. And foreign intervention can certainly help push things along, but there are certain things that you need on the ground for an uprising to succeed. you need the opposition to be united and organized around a common goal. Maybe you have that, although organizing the opposition in Iran has been tricky in recent years or recent decades, because the Iranian government has managed to arrest, marginalize, drive into exile a lot of leaders who could organize an opposition. And then you need the security establishment to fracture.

7:35That can either be the government, but it can also importantly be security forces. And we haven't seen any indication in Iran that that's happening this time around. Trump is not the first president to face this conundrum. Barack Obama famously in 2009 during the Green Movement protests in Iran did not intervene on behalf of protesters, even though there were some calls among protesters for him to support them. And he declined to do that primarily because he didn't want to make it appear as if the U.S. was fomenting the uprising in Iran. And a very standard accusation by the Iranian government is that protesters in the streets are foreign agents or terrorists.

8:11And we've seen this this time around as well. And when people are arrested and they're tried in court, their punishment so much more severe can even entail the death penalty. So whether or not Trump intervenes on behalf of Iranian protesters, time will tell. Are there, though, other steps you're hearing about that could be more effective that the U.S. could turn to right now? Yeah. One thing that Iranian activists have also called for is increased internet access. We've had a weeks-long, almost total internet blackout in Iran, which means both that it's very difficult for outsiders like us to get any sort of good transparency into the scope, the extent of the crackdown on protesters, where the protests are taking place, how big they are, etc.

8:57But it also makes it difficult for the demonstrators themselves to coordinate and be in touch. And this is a tactic we've seen Iranian security forces, the Iranian government take in the past as well. Some analysts will say that a solution to this would be for Western governments and the private sectors to come together and improve internet access for Iranians. And Starlink has made moves to do this. So that's one approach they could take. You also have analysts saying that European governments, for example, should continue monitoring the human rights situation, continue spreading awareness of what's actually happening on the ground, providing refuge for those Iranians who might have to flee the country.

9:34But those things don't change the fundamental dynamic on the ground, which is that currently you have a security establishment which is heavily armed and clearly not reluctant to kill its own people. And you have mostly unarmed population rising up against them, being killed in very large numbers, larger numbers than we've seen in any public protest in Iran in the past. We've surpassed several thousand deaths in Iran now, according to the most reliable estimates that we get. Journal foreign correspondent Sunar Rasmussen, thank you as always for stopping by. Very welcome.

10:11In markets news today, Mitsubishi is splashing out more than$5 billion for shale assets in Texas and Louisiana. The Japanese trading house is exploring whether portions of that LNG production could be exported to Asia and Europe. And Norway's Equinor has been given the green light to resume work on its massive Empire wind project off Long Island. A federal judge ruled that harm to the company stemming from a construction halt ordered by the Trump administration outweighed national security concerns outlined by the government. The Interior Department, which oversees wind projects, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

10:52And finally, does clothing influence how we act? The U.S. government seems to think so. As the holiday travel rush began last year, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued this reminder. Whether it's a pair of jeans and a decent shirt, I would encourage people to maybe dress a little better, which encourages us to maybe behave all a little better. Let's try not to wear slippers and pajamas as we come to the airport. The Golden Age of Travel Starts With You campaign is the Transportation Department's attempt to recapture the glamour of aviation's heyday. The goal is less about being style police and more about improving unruly passenger behavior.

11:33But as Journal reporter Dean Seale points out, that doesn't mean people are listening. The Federal Aviation Administration says in-flight outbursts ranging from disruptive behavior to outright violence has risen 400 percent since 2019, with a big surge during the pandemic. The request for travelers to ditch their comfy clothes was largely met with eye rolls online. Comedians, TikTok influencers, and other online commentators were quick to point out that travelers these days are dressing to endure lengthy flight delays, TSA pat-downs, and cramped seating on planes. Dressing to impress probably isn't going to make you any less stressed if you find yourself sleeping on the floor of an airport or crammed into a middle seat.

12:07So what do you normally wear at cruising altitude? Let us know in our Spotify poll. And that's it for What's News for this Friday morning. Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer. Our supervising producer was Daniel Bach. And I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Otherwise, have a great weekend and thanks for listening.