Energy Secretary Chris Wright faced intense criticism from House Democrats during a hearing Tuesday, but also shed new insight into his thinking on the Republican megabill, the Loan Programs Office and more.
Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where lawmakers often spar with administration officials, did not have a shortage of concerns for Wright.
The Department of Energy recently canceled $3.7 billion in decarbonization grants stemming from the Democrats’ 2022 climate law. The administration also wants to wind down the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations from the bipartisan infrastructure law.
“You canceled industrial demonstrations funded by Congress to cut carbon emissions and toxic air pollution from industrial sites and power plants,” said Energy Subcommittee ranking member Kathy Castor (D-Fla.).
“DOE claimed these projects are not economically viable, but that’s not true. … This program would bring $14 billion in private investment and keep industrial facilities competitive with countries around the world.”
One Republican also expressed discomfort with the fate of climate and clean energy grants. Wright said a review would be done by the end of summer.
Rep. John Joyce (R-Pa.) said, “Even projects that align with the Trump’s administration goals to unleash American energy can be left in an unsteady environment as the reviews continue to unfold. This dynamic can have a cooling effect on desperately needed investment.”
Wright also made clear his positions on a number of issues Republicans will deal with as they finalize their party-line budget reconciliation bill in the coming weeks.
Climate law tax credits
Despite Wright’s aversion to subsidies he says distort markets, he said during Tuesday’s hearing that Republicans must work to keep Inflation Reduction Act tax credits for certain emerging, Republican-favored energy sources.
Wright told committee lawmakers that he was in active contact with Senate Republicans, who are currently negotiating budget reconciliation text, to tell them to extend breaks for three technologies.
“I have advocated in this legislation right now to have nuclear, geothermal and fusion as three emerging sources to get tax credit treatment,” Wright said. “Maybe through an end date like if you’re under construction by 2031, but it has to have an end date.”
The House-passed tax, energy and border spending megabill would roll back incentives for renewable energy and hydrogen. Nuclear, however, would get more beneficial treatment.
Wright showed qualified support for continuing the 45X tax credit, meant to promote domestic manufacturing and mineral supply chains.
Wright, however, was resolute in his opposition to subsidies for wind and solar. He called them technologies that were no longer emerging and, therefore, not in need of federal support.
“We pay people to put stuff on our grid that ultimately makes our grid more expensive,” Wright said. “If you subsidize something, it better be cheaper or subsidize something, and getting a more expensive product at the end, that’s a big loss.”
Loan office funding
Wright on Tuesday continued his advocacy for the Loan Programs Office. The House-passed reconciliation bill would rescind all unobligated funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. Wright, however, wants to redirect the money for nuclear and other administration priorities.
“I would encourage the Senate and the House to restore the LPO credit ability,” Wright said. “I think we have to be cautious and judicious with funds … but I do think it’s a helpful tool.”
The administration’s fiscal 2026 budget request would boost the office. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) said more may be needed.
“We put in a $750 million credit subsidy request, but if that got raised up to increase my lending authority to support nuclear projects,” Wright said. “Unquestionably, that would be helpful.”
The secretary said, “My goal is to keep it alive and try to have some scale in it. Next-generation nuclear, some critical mineral stuff, potentially even geothermal could be some options going forward.”
Not ‘all of the above’
Democrats wanted to know whether Wright believes in an “all-of-the-above” energy approach or whether he’ll be actively hostile to renewables.
Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.) said the secretary appeared to be more supportive of wind and solar during his Senate Energy and Natural Resourced confirmation hearing.
“In your confirmation hearings, you committed to an all-of-the-above energy strategy, and I applaud that, to include both conventional forms of energy as well as renewable energy,” Carter said.
Wright told the Senate panel he would “be an unabashed steward for all sources of affordable, reliable and secure American energy and the infrastructure needed to develop, deliver and secure them.”
Wright on Tuesday said: “I have never been for ‘all of the above,’ and if I said it at one point in time, I misspoke. I’m against energy sources that make the energy system more expensive or less reliable.”
Wright would not agree with Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) that record generation of wind and solar in Texas has contributed to the state’s low energy prices compared to the national average. Wright said wind and solar were not “a meaningful driver of reduced energy prices in Texas.”
Still, Wright said wind and solar have a small role to play in the nation’s power grid, mainly as a limited supplement to baseload sources like natural gas, coal and nuclear.
This story also appears in Energywire.
