The Fiscal Year 2027 Department of Energy Budget.

Morning.

Good morning. Well, good morning, the subcommittee on energy and commerce have now come to order. And the chair recognized himself for five minutes for an opening statement. Welcome to today's hearing on the department. of energy's fiscal year twenty twenty seven budget and and welcome back to you, mister secretary, to the energy and sub- uh energy subcommittee of the energy s- uh and commerce committee. Almost fourteen months ago you inherited a department that was not serving the strategic needs of the nation. The previous administration lacked a realistic national energy security strategy, they wasted billions of dollars reducing reliable energy and making our energy systems ill-prepared to meet this historic moment of the next generation economy. more than a year at the helm of our energy department, things look very different. Under your leadership, our nation's energy strategy prioritizes core responsibilities of energy and national security, reliable power, affordability and economic growth. You charted a path to ensure US leadership in future technologies that are reshaping the global order. Finite taxpayer resources have been shifted to focus on abundant, reliable energy expansion. You've harnessed DOE's computer power to ai to use for societal benefit you've accelerated work on a nuclear technologies increase collaboration to secure the grid during emergencies and increase resources on our nuclear deterrent you've also refocused the department's loan program on energy expansion and reliability most of these actions are reflected in dov's proposed budget these efforts uh couldn't come at a more important time international conflict and decisive military actions by the trump administration to protect our our nation have put increased pressure on ensuring a secure and reliable energy system. While DOE has diligently worked a to focus on essential energy and security priorities, more work remains. Affordability continues to be a key concern in facing American families. Would like to get your perspective today on the impacts on oil prices from the conflict with Iran, and what prospects for more stable supplies would mean. And we should also impact the forces behind higher energy costs. Average utility bills rose by eleven percent in twenty twenty five, after increasing by twenty nine percent in four years prior and substantially higher across our nation's blue estates. In fact, recent reports from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab confirm that far left policies are driving price increases that are burdening households and businesses. We should examine how mis- policies leave our communities vulnerable when they need electricity the most, and what do we is doing about that? Recent weather events during winter storm fern exposed the risk of over-reliance on weather dependent energy. DOE's decisive two O two C orders and effective emergency planning were critical to protect against blackouts automatically saving lives and preventing billions, uh, dollars in economic damage. While mismanaged public policies disrupt our historic projections of demand growth from data centers and reshoring manufacturing continue to go to climb. Data centers alone could consume up to seventeen percent of the total electricity, which is also sixty percent higher than estimates projected in twenty twenty four. Importantly, DOE has taken several steps to ensure data centers can connect to the grid in a way that drives down prices and does not burden rate payers with additional costs. The subcommittee has spent considerable time examining this historic load growth and what type of energy system is needed to fuel data centered demand. Without fail, experts across the field have testified that the answer is dispatchable, reliable and affordable supplies of base load power. In recognition of these needs, the department has prioritized dispatchable resources that can power next generation technologies and can keep the lights on when we most need it. Alongside these efforts, the department has focused on ushering in a nuclear re- renaissance. This ranges from your work to accelerate the development of American nuclear fuel infrastructure and of reprocessing fused fuel to your work to demonstrate more new, new, new reactor designs. We should examine how your work will dovetail with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's commercial licensing, to provide a robust, safe process for nuclear expansion. While the previous administration sought to end the use of fossil fuels, your department has unleashed like liquefied natural gas and reverse unnecessary regulations that attack fossil fuel use. I look forward to the discussion today on how your energy and technology priority t- priorities will benefit the American people. And I yield back the balance of my time and recognize the General Lady from Florida, the ranking member of the subcommittee for five minutes for an opening statement.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome, Mr. Secretary. Mr. Secretary, the policies of the Trump administration have made very expensive for our neighbors back home. It is truly soul-crushing what they are experiencing right now. Electric bills are way up. Under the Trump administration, household electric bills have risen as much as thirteen percent nationally, and utilities are imposing massive rate hikes. Trump's war in Iran has sent an energy shock rippling through the economy with huge price spikes. Uh, energy inflation is up ten point nine percent. That's the highest in twenty years. Gas prices jumped twenty-one, over twenty-one percent in March alone, the biggest increase since records began in nineteen sixty-seven. Americans are grappling with wildly higher gas and diesel prices, and you know, consumer goods are transported across the country by trucks running on diesel. So folks are bracing for higher costs for consumer goods, too. The pain in the pocketbook comes at a rotten time for hardworking Americans are already paying more due to arbitrary and illegal Trump tariffs. Uh, and over the past few days, Republicans have been celebrating the big ugly bill. But the impact, uh, has been devastating when it comes to energy bills for our neighbors back home. Because to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, Republicans in Congress rolled back many of the clean energy initiatives, uh, from the Inflation Reduction Act, uh, which have been helping consumers save on energy costs. The Trump administration and the GOP eliminated tax credits for solar, wind, electric vehicles, and home efficiency upgrades. So altogether, what is happening is you're really sticking hard-working Americans with higher electric bills. Uh, and despite, on top of all that, despite higher energy demand and the need to lower prices, the Department of Energy has effectively killed cleaner, cheaper energy projects, some fully and under construction, to the point that the country ma- in many places is grappling with a shortage of power, and rate payers are e- are paying even higher electric bills. And it's troubling that the DOE is making it all the more expensive by forcing expensive, dirty, cold plants to stay on-line, counter to the plans of utilities, state regulators, and grid operators due to the cost of ongoing operation. But do you know who's making out like bandits through all of this? Oil and gas executives. The Wall Street Journal uh recently reported that Trump's war in Iran is yielding a windfall for American's top oil executives particularly CEOs who have pocketed, get this, over the past couple months one point four billion dollars. Uh when the Chevron chief executive sold shares, he pocketed a hundred and four million dollars. Conoco Phillips uh CEO netted about fifty-four point three million in March alone. Uh, the CEO of Baker Hughes sold about thirty-three million dollars worth of stock during the same month. Uh, Trump, the Trump administration and fossil fuel executives certainly have consumers over the barrel in more ways than one. Yeah. You know, this Trump energy crisis almost seems intentional. Uh, and this is a context for the president's proposed, uh, budget. Aside from the NNSA, you're proposing an eleven percent cut in air that help consumers save, like full elimination of the low-income home energy assistance program and the weatherization program that this committee auth- reauthorized in a bipartisan fashion last year. You proposed to cut initiatives for critical minerals, geothermal energy and hydropower. Those are bipartisan, that we all support. That seems, um, backwards. As usur- as usual, the only thing that the administration reliably supports are polluters. The president's Mm-hmm. Yeah. a historic labor shortage. It calls into question whether you can administer the law as Congress intended. You've now uh you've lost so many people that now rather than address it, you request new power for political appointees alone to make these decisions. And this opens the door to more corruption and grift that has become a hallmark of the Trump administration. This budget does nothing to help hardworking American families. In fact, it actively hurts them. It's a budget that will leave the United States further behind our competitors in the global energy race, while callously telling Americans, good luck to you, as they continue to scrape by, our neighbors back home deserve better, Mister Secretary. They deserve cheaper, more affordable, reliable, clean energy.

Yep.

I hope you can answer these questions, because we have a lot of them today. I yield back my word.

Thank you very much, gentlemen and ladies, time has expired and the chair now recognizes the gentleman from Tucky, the Chairman of the full committee, for five minutes for an opening statement.

Thank you, Mister uh uh Chair, and thank you Mister Secretary for being here. Glad to have you before us today. Your testimony is espe is especially important, given the timely world events and the impact on energy markets. As uh as the Trump administration came into to um to being, and and our committee reformed this last year, we were able to get uh the energy policies in place that got oil down to about sixty dollars, a And that was never anywhere close during the Biden administration where people had affordable access to energy. But we do know with Iran choking the flow of oil, gas, and other critical markets, uh, that has raised the price of energy for Europe, uh, for us, product, trouble getting products to Europe, to Asia and other markets, and we're facing a a crisis now of energy prices. But the stability in the place we have is sixty dollar barrel of oil. That's where we should get back to when we get beyond where we are. And we the Department of Energy was was organized for this specific uh reason, uh right before the the Islamic Revolution in Iran. And we've all long known about Iran's explicit threat to America and to our allies, and we all knew that it had to be addressed and President Trump has addressed it. But clearly Iran's disruption of global markets is increasing prices here at home, so understanding how DOE is addressing supply constraints as a result, and how its work will help ensure long-term affordability will be part of our discussion today. And of course there is uh but one of many pressing issues, China. China still threatens to disrupt geopolitical relationships around the world, and to overtake technological leadership, particularly in the race for AI dominance and innovation. And here at home our nation still faces tremendous new demand for energy. There's a burning need to revitalize an energy system, long suffering from misguided policies that undermine reliable, affordable power and prioritize technologies that depend on taxpayer subsidies and handouts. Success requires energy addition. Building the reliable afforded systems that leverage our abundant sources of energy is critical. So, Mister Secretary, you testified last year that access, eh quote, access to an abundant and reliable energy supply is a key ingredient to unlocking prosperity and ensuring human flourishing and innovation, unquote. That's refreshing and powerful. message should be at the center of our nation's energy policy and DOE's technological work. Let's focus on how best to do this. I'll yield back.

Thank you. This gentleman yields back, and the chair now recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey, the ranking member of the full committee, for five minutes for an opening statement.

Thank you, Chairman Latta. The Trump administration's energy policy, secretary right, has been an absolute failure. Energy prices have all kinds of skyrocketed, energy reliability is under threat, Pollution is getting worse for the first time in decades. And, Mister Secretary, it's all the Trump administration's fault. The list of disastrous policy failures from this administration is long, but one of the worst offenses has been Trump's reckless war in Iran. Since day one there's been no plan. In fact, the strategy changes by the day and by each deranged social media post from the President. First, Trump says he wants to open the straits of Hormuz, and the next day he say he wants to blockade it. And his erratic policy says, global oil prices skyrocketing and american drivers are now paying more than four dollars per gallon each time they fill up their tanks while diesel prices have reached over five dollars per gallon and trump's war caused the largest monthly increase in gas prices in nearly sixty years and there's no relief in sight. The average household is expected to spend seven hundred forty dollars extra on gas this year. And making matters worse, the trump administration's initial response was to unleash sanctioned russian and iranian crude upon the world, two of the worst actors on the international stage, including the one the administration is actively fighting a war against. Even in the last week, the president has floated a plan that would allow Iran to collect billions of dollars in tolls for traversing the Straits of Hormuz and that President Trump started this war promising that the Iranian regime would fall, but clearly that's not happening. This war is an unequivocal disaster brought on by this president. And throughout all this chaos and volatility in the markets, Secretary Wright, your social media was saying that the US was escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz, and then the White House said it wasn't true. I don't know, it just doesn't seem like anybody can get their act together. And you seem more interested in increasing the output of Venezuela and oil producers than addressing energy security challenges here in the US. And the Trump administration's energy policy has firmly put America last, so much for the promise of America first, it's America last. And it hasn't just been foreign policy, Republicans' disastrous domestic policies have put America last too. Electricity prices have increased at twice the pace of inflation. Natural gas prices are up twelve percent since the president took office. Last month energy prices caused inflation to reach its highest level in two years. And tens of millions of Americans are already struggling to afford their power bills and last year utilities requested thirty-one billion dollars in rate hikes. And rather than trying to soften the blow for Americans, the Department of Energy, under your leadership, has only DOE has attacked energy efficiency standards, cancelled or delayed clean energy projects, slowed down important cost saving programs like the home rebates program and the weatherization assistance program. Just thirty-six hours ago, my staff received a forty page list of grants that DOE has decided to retain or modify after leaving these grantees hanging for over fifteen months. And these are projects that would strengthen the grid, build out clean energy manufacturing, reduce our But many have not heard a word from the department for over a year, and this period of limbo has seriously jeopardized the viability of many of these projects. I mean, look, the bottom line is you can't rob a bank, then give ninety percent of the money back and expect a thank you. There isn't gonna be any thank you from me. Making matters worse, your administration has directly increased electricity prices by hundreds of millions of dollars in certain regions of the country to keep coal plants online. Unfortunately, as last week showed three of those plants you demand to stay on-line didn't produce a single mega-watt of power and yet American families in those areas are seeing their electricity shoot through the roof. Um, it's a perfect summary of the Trump administration's policies with high costs and zero benefits. So secretary, during your time with the Department of Energy, there has been a drastic and unprecedented decline in energy security and affordability for all Americans. And today's hearing is about assuring

Well, thank you very much. The gentleman yields back, and this concludes member opening statements. The chair reminds members that pursuant to committee rules all members' opening statements will be made part of the record. Also, just to uh, you know, ah, I think all the members already know, we have four vote series today. We have one coming up at eleven thirty. There's anticipating uh getting off the floor until twelve fifteen we have a one thirty three fifteen and a five o'clock and uh so uh you know as always when we end the uh fir the second or the first vote series and the last vote uh we will be back in our seats ten minutes after uh the vote is called also

mmm

as everyone knows uh i'm gonna have to make sure that i'm cutting people off at five minutes so members can keep getting their all members can get their questions in so it uh i'll answer that because i will gavel at five minutes on your questions again we wanna thank the secretary for uh testifying before us today and uh you will have a uh opportunity to give an opening statement followed followed by a round of questions from our members and our witness of today's hearing is the honorable chris wright the secretary of energy at the the us department of energy mr. secretary we appreciate you being here today and you are recognized for five minutes for an opening statement

Chairman Lotta, Ranking Member Coster, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the President's fiscal year twenty twenty-seven budget for the Department of Energy. Under President Trump's leadership, we have put the department back on mission, delivering affordable, reliable and secure energy for the American people. Let me highlight what that looks like. We have taken decisive steps to restore grid reliability. Using emergency authorities under section two O two C of the Federal Power Act, we kept baseload critical generation online after DOE analysis warned outage risk could increase by one hundred fold by twenty-thirty, if we had continued the Biden administration policies. This action and the critical market response to our action preserve seventeen gigawatts of critical dispatchable generation for the American people. Hundreds of American lives were saved by these actions during winter storm fern. Historic cold drove record heating and electricity demand. Dispatchable energy, natural gas, coal, hydro, and nuclear were the MVP's of the grid. In New England, at peak demand, hydrocarbons, hydro, and nuclear provided ninety-five percent of power. Wind, solar, and battery combined provided two percent, less than burning wood and trash. The lesson? When reliability is on the line, dispatchable energy shows up. We have worked to establish American energy leadership globally. Since President Trump ended the previous administration's reckless LNG export approval ban, the department has approved more than nineteen BCF a day of new export authorizations, which is more more than the entire capacity the United States had on inauguration day last January. The United States is the global leader in LNG exports and will become even more dominant under President Trump's leadership. This is a win for America, a win for our allies, a win for global energy security, and a blow to our adversaries. We are advancing national security at home and abroad. From day one, President Trump has focused on delivering prosperity to the world. security at home and peace abroad. Occasionally, power must be projected to create long-term peace. American national security is anchored by our nuclear deterrent. DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration is honored by this mission to ensure a safe, secure and effective deterrent against new and evolving threats. Today, NNSA is delivering more new weapons, seven warhead modernization programs, and plutonium pits than than sin- ever since the Cold War. We are driving a nuclear power renaissance. Our efforts span next generation reactor pilot programs, re-establishing American nuclear enrichment capacity, domestic nuclear fuel fabrication, reprocessing, and a pathway to spent fuel permanent storage. I am proud to share that we will have multiple advanced reactor prototypes, critical by America's two hundred fiftyth birthday this July fourth. We are driving hard to meet President Trump's goal of quadruping quadrupling nuclear capacity to four hundred gigawatts by twenty fifty. This ensures nuclear energy will play a central role in powering America's re-industrialization and leadership in A I. Our budget request reaffirms our commitment to cleaning up nuclear waste in communities that carried the weight of America's earliest nuclear programs. We are bringing professional management and innovation to enhance clean-up efforts, while seeking to redevelop cleaned-up sites like Portsmouth, Paducah, Hanford and others. We launched the Genesis mission to bring AI's immense promise to scientific and technological innovation. In our nation's history, there have been two great scientific mobilizations, the World War Two Manhattan Project and the Apollo space program. The Genesis mission is the third. Genesis' mission is focused on on the most difficult scientific challenges of our time, quantum computing, fusion energy, advanced materials development, and human health. We are partnering where industry alone cannot go, tackling long-term challenges that require national commitment, bringing together our national laboratories, universities, and private industry to accelerate scientific discovery. We are winning the AI race and lowering energy costs. By leveraging department-owned land and assets. We are enabling rapid deployment of large-scale compute capacity through public-private partnerships. We are working closely with industry and communities to ensure these projects adhere to the President's important rate payer protection pledge to rapidly expand our nation's electricity grid and end the Biden administration's ruinous rise in electricity prices. We are securing critical minerals. We have strategically reorganized the department. consolidating five offices into a single office of critical minerals and energy innovation. This creates one hub across DOE, the national labs, and external partners to manage the full supply chain from mining and processing to magnets and batteries.

And pardon me, uh, Mr. Secretary, if you could just wrap up, um,

Yep.

I'd appreciate it. Thank you.

Yeah, finally, we're preparing for the future. America is open for business. And again, trillions of dollars are being invested in American

Well thank you, well thank you very much for your testimony, and we now move into the question and answer portion of the hearing. I'm, will begin the questioning with recognizing myself for five minutes. Let me begin with our energy security and energy affordability. Today the United States is not as vulnerable to major oil disruptions as Europe or Asia. or as it was up into the early two thousands. And this is because the US oil and natural gas production. Wouldn't you agree with that, Mr. Secretary?

I don't think you can get away with that.

Thank you. Oh, and if you, your mike please. Uh, clearly impacts on global prices from the Iran conflict have impacts uh at home. Prices for oil, gas and gas products have increased. What is DOE doing to mitigate impacts and how do you see this playing out in the coming

Yes. Uh well, we've done a number of actions in in the short term, which is first to coordinate globally the release of four hundred million barrels of oil from strategic reserve in over thirty nations. We did this because we have an interruption of flows through the Straits of Hormuz. That's what the strategic petroleum reserves are for. The Biden administration unfortunately depleted our reserves to almost half empty for economic reasons. There were no disruptions in flows in twenty twenty two, yet they sold massive amounts of oil out of out of our reserves. We are not selling oil. We are trading barrels today when they're needed in exchange for one point two barrels. Uh, at the later next year, we will end with a strategic petroleum reserve fuller than it was when this conflict started. I'm very proud of the president's effort to put to an end a forty seven year conflict with the largest state sponsor on the edge of developing nuclear weapons. We have changed regulations for gasoline blending this summer, so we can increase the the uh production of gasoline in our country. We have done all sorts of work with our refining industry and our natural gas producers industry to accelerate production to the extent we can. While I don't like the escalation of prices we have seen, today gasoline prices are a dollar a gallon cheaper than they were four years ago in the midst of an abiding American. that was doing nothing to increase uh global security or assure the long-term safety of energy flows. This conflict with Iran bringing it to an end is removing the largest global threat to future energy supplies. Can we have a nuclear-armed Iran with a massive w- missile arsenal? No, we cannot. Proud of the president to not kick this can down the road, to take long-term energy security seriously, to take peace and prosperity in the Middle East,

Oh, thank you. California is experiencing the highest gas prices in the continent of United States where it has limited its oil production limited pipelines relies on thirty percent of its oil from the Straits of Hormuz. It is also has closed many refineries over the last several years. What does this mean for consumers in California and across the West Coast?

Uh, it's ruinous what California I lived in California for many years, absolutely ruinous what they've done to a enfeebled energy island in the United States's greatest state, largest state, and the largest collection, largest amount of our military resources are in the state of California. Yeah, it's over fifty percent imported oil, even though the United States is a net exporter of oil. Over fifty percent of the price of gasoline in California, two dollars higher than the national average, is because of state policies. They have chosen to make energy expensive for their people. The net

Thank you. Uh, let me uh turn to the prioritization. I got one minute to go here of DOE financial assistance. Last year, the department conducted a portfolio review process. We explained the status of this process and how you see it.

Yes, look, a as I g- explained uh in my testimony last year, it it was heartbreaking to see that roughly a hundred billion dollars rushed out the door after the Biden administration lost the election. We had to review two thousand two hundred and forty projects, a number of them with no business plan, nothing serious in them, but promises of grants of money. We assembled a team to do it. Unfortunately, the leaders of those my Senate confirmed positions, the leaders of the departments across the energy, the Democrats in the Senate for the first time in American history filibustered every single one. I did not get the leadership of the departments until late October last year. Course I had to engage them in that process. But we did a rigorous process to see what what projects are aligned with the mission to increase the supply of affordable of reliable energy to the American people.

Well, well, thank you very much, and keeping with my f- the five minutes, My time has expired and I recognize the General Lady from Florida, the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, five minutes for questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Secretary, one of the reasons that uh hard-working Americans are grappling with higher energy bills right now, is what you did when uh you took office at the Department of Energy in cancelling so many uh clean energy projects and and grid reliability projects. When you took office, you killed over three hundred and fifty new energy projects and threatened over three hundred more with termination. Um, you were sued because of this. And you lost in court because of it. Um. This is, this, I don't think it's gotten enough attention that many of the grants you canceled were done so just because they were in states led by Democrats. Is that fair? In the United, United States of America? For you just simply to s- to make a political decision? To kill clean energy projects? Increase electric bills, simply for political purposes?

Uh, so the statement is false. All of the twenty-two hundred and forty decisions we made did not involve politics at all.

Minister Secretary, there is,

Yeah.

let me show you, I'm sure you've seen this. This is the district court stipulation signed by your representatives of the Department of Energy in federal district court that stipulates a p- the primai- a primary reason for the selection of which DOE grant termination decisions were included in the October twenty twenty-five notice tranche was whether the grantee was located in a blue state. This is signed by your attorneys, and it's, it's, of course it is true.

Re- read your words more carefully were included in the announcement, not in the decisions on the projects. If you wanna make accusations, please, please be accurate.

Are you going, I mean, are you going, well, talk about accuracy. You just said that uh gas prices uh during the Biden administration were higher than they are now. They are not. Boy, tell my folks back in Florida that are pulling up to the gas pump, we had four twenty nine today.

Average was over average was over five dollars during the Biden administration.

That's much higher. That's about, this is the highest, and it's So arbitrary. You all have inflicted such pain and damage. And you can try to bob and weave on all this. But when a federal district court calls you out for your illegal cancellation of energy grants, hopefully you're going back to the drawing board to say, we're now going to right the ship. Uh, are y- for the, for the seven projects that, uh, prevailed, are you, have you released the funds to those energy projects?

Of course, we're appealing the decision there,

You're appealing the decision.

we we cannot appeal it yet cuz we don't have a final decision on it. But look, you you

So then what about the other?

Do you do you want an answer or do you just wanna speak?

Well, you said you're appealing the decision. So that means that as of right now you're not. What about the other hundreds of grants to stabilize the grid, to help lower costs, to bring on new clean energy, cheaper energy technologies? Do you intend now, since the courts have said you acted illegally and arbitrarily, to actually restore those grants that were appropriated by the Congress?

Of course we follow the law, always will and always have, but what you call clean energy, it's exactly the subsidies on wind, solar and batteries that drove that drove the thirty percent rise in electricity prices during the Biden administration, and that drove the rise in electricity prices last year. Because the only things that could be permitted were energy sources that only work some of the time and you don't know when they work.

Mister Secretary, you think

It is a surefire

You know,

You know,

you think,

you think,

think about,

think about,

uh,

uh,

you're gonna hear from other colleagues today about canceled projects that,

yeah.

that states and communities were relying on to help lower energy bills, and now you have said, no, we, we think it's more expensive to double down on costly polluting plants. You know, the unabated, uh, burning of oil and gas and coal also has an outside's cost and impact. Uh, you can't turn a blind eye to the rising

They weren't arbitrary, They they weren't arbitrary, and the legality are being disputed. and the legality are being disputed. you mentioned the rising costs of a warming climate. Over the last thirty-five years, insured losses as a percent of global GDP have declined twenty percent.

Oh, I know insurance in Florida. I know insurance in Florida.

It declined, not risen.

Yep.

The uh general meeting's time has expired.

Uh, you'll back my time.

And the chair now recognizes the general from Kentucky, the chairman of the full committee, five minutes for questions.

So, Mister Secretary, did you wanna respond to more of what was just asked? I'll give you some time to answer some questions that you were just asked.

the most of the main points she said, I hide my hand, head, head in the sand. No, no one has ever accused me of that before. I'm very outward, I'm very honest about what we're doing, and and the leave the leave with this rising costs from climate, from a warming climate. The climate has warmed. We have put fifty percent more plant food in the atmosphere. That is true. But damages from extreme weather have been on a downward trend, as long as we have data as a percent of the economy. So looked at realistically and honestly, we do, there's not

And you also start talking about it by by subsidizing nondispatchable power that only gave what two percent uh less than garbage and burning wood in New England. And people say, well you just picked the worst day of the year when you used that comment. And I said, well, we needed the worst day of the year. That's when we need it the most. said Churchill Downs has a hundred thousand seats for one day a year, but they need them not one day a year. And so, so it's important. So how did the, the uh So the subsidies of wind and solar that some people claim will make power cheaper cuz you're subsidizing it, so it's somebody's paying for it, but it's maybe cheaper for the user, actually makes it more expensive cuz you can't permit it or they don't build other dispatchable power. How do the subsidies of wind and solar make energy go up?

Yeah, g- great question. I always say a a subsidy is inefficient if the government collects a dollar of taxpayer money and makes something only fifty cents cheaper. It's a waste of fifty cents. The subsidies for wind and solar, the government collects a dollar of taxes and makes electricity expen- more expensive so it costs another dollar. The losses are amplified by these expenditures. And the reason is, if d- most of the time right right now, we have hundreds of gigawatts of excess electricity capacity generation on our grid. The only time delivery matters and sets the capacity of grid as a peak demand time.

Mm.

How much we can deliver in our electricity grid is what we can deliver at peak demand. Wind and solar, and you saw it in Fern, go on vacation when you need them the most. So if the wind picks up right now and it starts blowing, the federal government sends four cent subsidy per kilowatt hour to that wind farm developer. We take a natural gas plant that's running and turn its power down, cuz it's gotta accommodate the wind power. We save two cents in the natural gas that's not burnt. We're already down two cents. Plus the utility that contracted with that wind company pays them whatever their contracted rate was for it. If you, we've added a whole bunch of new capacity, but we haven't expanded the capacity of the grid. We just have to operate two grids now and build all sorts of new transmission infrastructure. The states that have h- passed renewable portfolio standards and pushed what representative Caster calls clean energy they have fifty percent higher average electricity prices than the states that didn't force that. So we talk

So I wanna get over the next minute forward, I had a lot of questions, I'll set them for the record, but talk about we know there's a crisis, w- w- there's high prices in energy, people are hurting, we can't have an a nuclear ran. I g- I understand the decipher action and the reason for it, but at the Department of Energy what is kind of going on in the next minute,

Oh, all sorts of things. Look on the electricity grid, we're we're doing everything we can to keep dispatchable capacity that we have today on the grid. Do you

I mean for gas prices today, for what what are you guys doing knowing that for this emergency

Oh.

trying to do everything you can to make gas prices today cheaper. Well, I know we're gonna get beyond this, but what are you trying to do today?

We we we meet every day with what are the knobs we can turn there. The I mentioned this petroleum reserve i mentioned working with epa to change the blending requirements so we can produce more gasoline this summer um we're looking at how we can uh expedite american more o- american oil production from wells we already have we we mentioned the sanctions on on the barrels of oil they're floating barrels of oil in the pacific ocean that are on their way to china iran and russian oil going into china where it'll be parked in a strategic petroleum reserve China banned the exports of gasoline and diesel to the rest of the world. That oil doesn't help anyone. It's gonna be sold anyway. So yes, we did talk to the, uh, the whole administration and say, let those barrels of oil flow into India. They'll go into Indian refineries. They'll produce more gasoline and diesel and jet fuel. And they'll export those products to the world. We've done everything pragmatic and we'll continue to do more things to keep that price of gasoline down. I'm disappointed it's up from the below three

And I'm sorry,

far lower than it ever touched.

Mr. Mr. Secretary, I'm sorry, uh, the time has expired.

I yield back. You bet.

And the gentleman, uh, uh, yields back, the chair now recognizes the ranking member from, uh, for the full committee, the gentleman from New Jersey, five minutes for questions.

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and Mister Secretary, you know, sometimes I almost feel sorry for you, to be honest. Uh, I mean, you keep saying how the president has to show has to show strength. This is the weakest president. He looks He is uh he talks about victory. Meanwhile, Iran, China, Russia, they just eat our lunch. That's the bottom line. Yes, I have the Chinese intervene to get a ceasefire. He wants to he he wants to lift the sanctions on Iran, lift the sanctions on Russia. How is it that that strength, that's weakness. But more important than anything is my constituents don't believe in this war. And the president keeps saying that the prices uh for for gas are going up and probably gonna go up even further is because we have to fight this war we don't have to fight this war this war must end and no one here is willing to sacrifice higher prices for everything for an unjust illegal war and i know you can't say that the war is unjust or illegal because you work for the president i understand that that's why i almost feel sorry for you having to be here today to justify what's going on But let me just ask you this, I mentioned that you tweeted and and this is a tweet and I quote, the US Navy successfully escorted an oil tanker through this trader promotes to ensure oil remains flowing to global markets. And as a result of that tweet, the stock market and oil markets reacted sharply until the rest of the Trump administration had to come out and contradict your statement which was then deleted. My concern is that the Trump administration

I did not post that tweet myself, I did not post that tweet myself, but I do take full responsibility for it. but I do

Yeah.

i gave a i gave a speech

and i i appreciate again i feel sorry for you crude prices

it was a mistake

crude prices tumbled below eighty dollars a barrel after your tweet uh before jumping again after it was deleted if the post was an error by staff have you done an internal investigation to insure that the do e staff involved we're not trading on this activity in other words you didn't do it somebody else did did they make a buck because of it have you investigated that

uh i'm not aware of of that but of course i did speak to the people in my communications department that i spoke in colorado they misquoted something i said it was an honest mistake

ok

but it was my fault to not catch it to not see it before it was posted

alright

well i would ask that you do a little investigation because i'm concerned that they're trying to manipulate the markets so they can make a buck frankly that's what i'm concerned about now let me ask you this in your um opening statement you said you were very proud of the progress made on nuclear energy by this administration frankly i don't

Without objection, so ordered.

Okay.

At a meeting at Idaho National Lab last year, a DOE staffer named Seth Cohen said, and I quote, " the NRC is gonna do whatever we tell the NRC to do." And you later promoted, Mister Cohen,

Oh, it's critically important that the NRC is dependent. It's critically important that we work closely together between

OK, then why is Mister Cohen still on the job?

Mister Cohen is a passionate guy working to advance nuclear power. He he he gets he gets a little over his skis.

He's not doing too well.

he made a comment he he he didn't actually mean but he did say it he shouldn't have said it

ok so you're trying to say that he that he even though he made that

um he understands that fully

statement he feels that the nrc should be independent as well

absolutely

oh well i don't believe that for one minute look i wanna be clear your department has a responsibility to uphold public confidence in nuclear energy but critical to upholding that public confidence is maintaining an independent nuclear safety regulator separate from the arm of the government responsible for promoting nuclear energy. And frankly, I don't think we're ever gonna see progress on nuclear power on this administration, unless that independence is secure, and I don't think it is today. But thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

Well, thank you very much, the gentleman yields back the balance of time. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Alabama's sixth district for five minutes for questions.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to point out that uh gasoline prices under Biden hit uh five over, uh over five dollars a gallon, it's the highest in history. When he took office, it was two thirty nine a gallon, that's a two hundred percent increase. Um, um, Mister Secretary, uh, I just wanted to point that out. I wanna ask you something. Um, you're you're dealing with people here who, uh, claim to have the best interest in the country at heart, yet they're, uh, opposing policies that could dramatically improve the lives of people. We have economic injustice all over the country because of energy injustice that's been imposed on them. I understand that.