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...
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...
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...
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.
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...
The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry voted 23-0 in favor of advancing Brooke Rollins’ nomination for secretary of agriculture. She must now clear a full Senate vote before officially being installed at USDA. Baring any last-minutes surprises, Rollins is expected to easily receive enough votes. “Thank you to the entire United States Senate...
A lot can change in four years. When it comes to our energy grid, the axiom rings especially true. As the Trump administration gets settled in, new challenges are threatening the reliability and affordability of our energy systems. The rise of artificial intelligence and a domestic manufacturing boom has sent electricity demand skyrocketing after more...
To increase energy supply and strengthen America’s energy security, the President is calling for comprehensive regulatory reform, including help from the so-called “God Squad.” This little-known and rarely utilized group is officially known as the Endangered Species Act (ESA) Committee, and has only been convened three times since its creation in the first round of ESA Amendments in 1978. Now, it is required to meet quarterly...
The Senate confirmed former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as Interior secretary Thursday in a 79-18 vote, with the majority of Senate Democrats joining every Republican in the chamber. Burgum, a one-time candidate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination-turned-visible Trump campaign surrogate, has been among the president’s least controversial nominees. He advanced out of the Senate Energy...
