As Secretary of Energy, it is an immense privilege to serve alongside each of you at such a consequential moment in American history. Energy is the essential ingredient that enables everything we do. A highly energized society can bring health, wealth, and opportunity for all. At the Department, we have an opportunity to promote energy...
The GOP has spent the many hot years of Washington’s climate wars on defense, unable to articulate a positive alternative to the left’s grim new religion. It’s offered critiques—climate change isn’t real; climate change is overhyped; climate policies are costly, ineffective, stalking horses for government control—but never a rousing alternative. Into this unholy war steps...
Put another way, while productivity gains in the economy reduce emissions by letting us consume more with fewer inputs, the taxes and regulations that accompany climate policies carry a “deadweight loss” that trades productivity improvement for direct emission abatement. This creates a tradeoff typically not included in analysis and potentially explains why having many regulations...
The U.S. Department of Energy will focus on growing baseload and dispatchable generation to meet growing electricity demand, DOE Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday in an order outlining the department’s priorities under the Trump administration. “We must … permit and build energy infrastructure and remove barriers to progress, including federal policies that make it too easy to stop...
Four small-scale nuclear reactors are to be hosted on Texas A&M University land, it was announced on Tuesday. CEOs from four nuclear power companies have committed to work with the Texas A&M System to develop prototype and commercial-ready “small modular reactors” (SMRs)—with the first having the potential to be constructed within five years. Smaller than their traditional...
President Donald Trump issued an executive order to freeze IRA funding soon after he took office, and is expected to urge the Republican-controlled Congress to make cuts to the legislation as lawmakers approach their March 14 shutdown deadline. Since Trump’s election, the clean energy industry has been pushing for the president to consider the IRA’s private...
A new recycling facility in Lodi, California, is set to enhance food and beverage carton recycling, expanding sustainable building material production on the West Coast. Developed in collaboration with the Carton Council, Elof Hansson USA Inc., and the Upcycling Group, the facility is expected to begin operations by the end of the third quarter. It will process post-consumer...
After the failure of the Manchin-Barrasso Energy Permitting Reform Act in the last Congress and with the zone flooded by executive action, legislative approaches to permitting reform in a new Congress are also kicking into gear.
As demonstrated by a recent U.S. Army development that could replace traditional diesel generators, military innovation can also benefit energy consumers and the planet.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s first edicts on the job aim to meet an “energy crisis” in the U.S. head-on with more drilling for oil and gas and relaxed regulations that the former governor from North Dakota says could help drive down energy prices. Burgum signed six secretarial orders Monday that claim to unleash the full...
