Unleash Commercial Nuclear Power in the United States
FEBRUARY 5, 2025
FROM: CHRIS WRIGHT
SECRETARY OF ENERGY
SUBJECT: Unleashing the Golden Era of American Energy Dominance
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 abundance, demonstrate leadership in scientific and technological innovation, steward and strengthen our weapons stockpiles, and meet Cold War legacy waste clean-up commitments.
President Trump has outlined a bold and ambitious agenda to unleash American energy at home and abroad to restore energy dominance. To compete globally, we must expand energy production and reduce energy costs for American families and businesses. America must lead the world in innovation and technology breakthroughs, which includes accelerating the work of the Department’s National Laboratories. We must also permit and build energy infrastructure and remove barriers to progress, including federal policies that make it too easy to stop projects and far too difficult to complete projects.
We must pursue a culture of transparency, performance, and common sense to succeed. Accordingly, the Department will take the following initial actions:
1. Advance Energy Addition, Not Subtraction:
Great attention has been paid to the pursuing of a net-zero carbon future. Net-zero policies raise energy costs for American families and businesses, threaten the reliability of our energy system, and undermine our energy and national security. They have also achieved precious little in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. The fact is that energy matters, and we need more of it, not less. Going forward, the Department’s goal will be to unleash the great abundance of American energy required to power modern life and to achieve a durable state of American energy dominance.
2. Unleash American Energy Innovation:
The Department’s Research and Development (R&D) enterprise is the envy of the world. We must focus our time and resources on technologies that will advance basic science, grow America’s scientific leadership, reduce costs for American families, strengthen the reliability of our energy system, and bolster America’s manufacturing competitiveness and supply chain security. As such, the Department’s R&D efforts will prioritize affordable, reliable, and secure energy technologies, including fossil fuels, advanced nuclear, geothermal, and hydropower.
The Department must also prioritize true technological breakthroughs – such as nuclear fusion, high-performance computing, quantum computing, and AI – to maintain America’s global competitiveness. To that end, the Department will comprehensively review its R&D portfolio. As part of that review, the Department will rigorously enforce project milestones to ensure that taxpayer resources are allocated appropriately and cost-effectively consistent with the law.
3. Return to Regular Order on LNG Exports:
America is blessed with abundant energy resources – we are the world’s top oil and gas producer and a net energy exporter for the first time in decades. Our energy abundance is an asset, not a liability. On January 20, the Department resumed consideration of pending applications to export American liquefied natural gas (LNG) to countries without a free trade agreement (FTA) with the U.S. in accordance with the Natural Gas Act. Proper consideration of LNG export applications is required by law and shall proceed accordingly.
4. Promote Affordability and Consumer Choice in Home Appliances:
A top priority of the Trump Administration is to ensure that American families can choose from a range of affordable home appliances and products. Therefore, the Department will initiate a comprehensive review of the DOE Appliance Standards Program. Any standards should include a cost-benefit analysis considering the upfront cost of purchasing new products and reflecting actual cost savings for American families. The Department will pursue a commonsense approach that does not regulate products that consumers value out of the market; instead, affordability and consumer choice will be our guiding light.
5. Refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR):
As President Trump has stated, the SPR is a national asset that protects our security in times of crisis. It must be refilled. Unfortunately, the SPR is currently at historically low levels. We will not permit this to become a new status quo. Moreover, the Department will review SPR infrastructure and develop appropriate plans to safeguard this important strategic asset.
6. Modernize America’s nuclear stockpile:
We urgently need to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons systems. The Department will continue its critical mission of protecting our national security and nuclear deterrence in the development, modernization, and stewardship of America’s atomic weapons enterprise, including the peaceful use of nuclear technology and nonproliferation.
7. Unleash Commercial Nuclear Power in the United States:
The long-awaited American nuclear renaissance must launch during President Trump’s administration. As global energy demand continues to grow, America must lead the commercialization of affordable and abundant nuclear energy. As such, the Department will work diligently and creatively to enable the rapid deployment and export of next-generation nuclear technology.
8. Strengthen Grid Reliability and Security:
Fortifying America’s electric grid is critical to the reliable and secure delivery of electricity. Under President Trump’s Executive Order, “Declaring a National Energy Emergency,” the Department will identify and exercise all lawful authorities to strengthen the nation’s grid, including the backbone of the grid, our transmission system. This is an imperative as we consider current and anticipated load growth on our nation’s electric utilities. Moreover, after two decades of very slow demand growth, electricity demand is forecast to soar in the coming years. The Department will bring a renewed focus to growing baseload and dispatchable generation to reliably meet growing demand.
9. Streamline Permitting and Identify Undue Burdens on American Energy:
A burdensome federal permitting process undermines America’s competitiveness and national security. Pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Orders, the Department will prioritize more efficient permitting to enable private sector investments and build the energy infrastructure needed to make energy more affordable, reliable, and secure. To that end, the Department will identify and exercise its legal authorities to expedite the approval and construction of reliable energy infrastructure.
The Department’s mission is vital to American security and prosperity. Working together, we will accelerate American science, reduce energy costs for American families and businesses, and strengthen the reliability and security of our nation’s energy system — all in our quest to better human lives. I look forward to working with you on this noble mission.
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Comment by Willem Post on February 13, 2025 at 4:04pm
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THE DYSFUNCTIONAL STATE OF MAINE?
The over-taxed, over-regulated, already-impoverished Maine people are super-screwed, trying to make ends meet in a near-zero, real growth Maine economy
The Maine economy has lots of low-tech/low-pay/low-benefit, bs jobs
The Maine economy has lots of woke, leftist bureaucrats
Screwed-over Mainers also have to pay for poverty-stricken, aliens of different cultures from all over, who illegally enter the US, a federal felony
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Those illegal aliens:
– are the dregs of Third World countries, sent to Maine by their US-hating, leftist, woke governments, in cahoots with Soros-financed NGOs
– are getting free housing, free food, a never-empty credit card, free healthcare, free education and whatever other goodies they want. They mainly suck from the government tit
– have no skills, no training, no education, no modern industrial experience.
– will take low-tech/low-pay/low-benefit jobs away from screwed-over Mainers.
– are often good at crime, murder, rape, drug and human trafficking and mayhem.
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Many millions of illegal aliens have to be shipped back where they came from, before they forever ruin the US.
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Down-trodden Mainers often have to put up with the visual ugliness and noise of hundreds of windmills, that are often idle, because of too little wind year-round, and many thousands of acres of solar panels, that are often covered with snow and ice in winter; there is no solar at night.
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MAGA may lead to higher CO2 ppm to 1) increase growth of flora and fauna all over the world, and 2) increase crop yields to feed hungry people. What is not to like?.
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NEW ENGLAND ELECTRICITY 100% FROM WIND AND SOLAR by 2050?
In New England, we have Net Zero nut cases. They know nothing about energy systems, but spout lots of nonsense.“Keep it in the ground”, they say. “All electricity from wind and solar”, they say.
When presented with numbers and facts their eyes glaze overHere is a simple analysis, if no fossil fuels, no nuclear, and minimal other sources of electricity
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/vermont-example-of-ele...
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It is assumed, 1) all W/S output, based on historic weather data, is loaded into batteries, 2) all demand is drawn from batteries, based on historic load on the grid, as published by ISO-NE.
An annual storage balance was created, which needed to stay well above zero; the batteries are not allowed to "run dry" in bad W/S years. The balance was used to determine the wind and solar capacities needed to achieve it.
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New England would need a battery storage system with a capacity of about 10 TWh of DELIVERABLE electricity from batteries to the HV grid.
Daily W/S output would be fed to the batteries, 140 TWh/y
Daily demand would be drawn from the batteries, 115 TWh/y in 2024
Battery system roundtrip loss, HV to HV, would be 25 TWh/y, more with aging
Transmission and Distribution to users incur additional losses of about 8%, or 0.08 x 115 = 9.2 TWh
The battery system would cover any multi-day W/S lulls throughout the year
Batteries would supplement W/S output, as needed, 24/7/365
W/S would charge excess output into the batteries, 24/7/365
Tesla recommends not charging to more than 80% full and not discharging to less than 20% full, to achieve normal life of 15 years and normal aging at 1.5%/y.
The INSTALLED battery capacity would need to be about 10 TWh / (0.6, Tesla factor x aging factor x 0.9, outage factor) = 18.5 TWh, delivered as AC at battery outlet.
The turnkey cost would be about $600/installed kWh, delivered as AC at battery outlet, 2024 pricing, or $600/kWh x 18.5 billion kWh = $11.1 trillion, about every 15 years.I did not mention annually increasing insurance costs of risky W/S projects.
If 50% were borrowed from banks, the cost of amortizing $5.5 trillion at 6% over 15 years = $557 billion/y
If 50% were from Owners, the cost of amortizing $5.5 trillion at 10% over 15 years = $708 billion/y
The two items total $1265 billion/y, about the same as the New England GDP.
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/battery-system-capital...
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No banks will finance W/S projects at acceptable interest rates and no insurance companies will insure them at acceptable premiums, no matter what the woke bureaucrats in are pronouncing.
The sooner the U-turn, the better for the US and Europe.
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HIGH COST/kWh OF WIND AND SOLAR FOISTED ONTO A BRAINWASHED PUBLIC
What is generally not known, the more weather-dependent W/S sources, the less efficient the other, traditional generators They have a hell-of-a-time to counteract the ups and downs of W/S output.
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/fuel-and-co2-reduction...
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At about 30% W/S, the entire system hits an increasingly thicker concrete wall, operationally and cost wise.
Germany and the UK are hitting that wall more and more hours each day
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Base-load nuclear, gas and coal plants are the only rational way forward, plus the additional CO2 is very beneficial for additional flora and fauna growth
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/we-are-in-a-co2-famine
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US gravy-train subsidies are:
1) Federal and state tax credits, up to 50%
- Community tax credit of 10 percent- Base tax credit of 30 percent
- State tax credit and other incentives of up to 10%
2) 5-y Accelerated Depreciation write off of the entire project
3) Deduction of interest of borrowed money.
The subsidies reduce the owning and operating cost of a project by 50%, which means electricity can be sold at 50% less than it costs to produce.
Utilities pay 15 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from fixedoffshore wind systems
Utilities pay 18 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from floating offshore wind
Utilities pay 12 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from larger solar systems
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Excluded costs, at a future 30% W/S annual penetration on the grid, the current UK level:
- Onshore grid expansion/reinforcement to connect distributed W/S systems, about 2 c/kWh
- Traditional power plants to quickly counteract W/S variable output, on a less than minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365, about 2 c/kWh
- Traditional power plants providing electricity during 1) low-wind periods, 2) high-wind periods, when rotors are locked in place, and 3) low solar periods during mornings, evenings, at night, snow/ice on panels, about 2 c/kWh
- W/S electricity that could have been produced, if not curtailed, about 1 c/kWh
- Importing electricity at high prices, when W/S output is low, 1 c/kWh
- Exporting electricity at low prices, when W/S output is high, 1 c/kWh
- Disassembly on land and at sea, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites, about 2 c/kWh
Some of these values exponentially increase as more wind and solar systems are added to the grid
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The economic/financial insanity and environmental damage of it all is off the charts.
No wonder Europe’s near-zero, real-growth economy is in such big do-doThat economy has been tied into knots by inane people.
YOUR tax dollars are building these projects so YOU will have much higher electric bills.
Remove YOUR tax dollars and none of these projects would be built, and YOUR electric bills would be lower
UK, GERMANY AND NORWAY
Norway gets 90% from hydro reservoir plants and 10% from west coast windmills.
Because of long distances, there is little connection between the north and south grid.
Any draw by the UK during W/S underproduction affects the south grid.
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The grid is pumped by generators to a voltage with 50-cycle electromagnetic waves which travel at near the speed of light. Electrons do not travel. They just vibrate at 50 Hz
Any UK underproduction, resulting in voltage drops, is immediately sensed about 800 miles away, and compensated for, by automatically opening the water valves to hydro turbines in Norway.
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A few years ago, during a W/S lull, Norway oversupplied Germany and the UK, which resulted in much higher wholesale prices in the south grid, too low water levels in reservoirs, rationing, aka blackouts/brownouts, and lots of Norwegians with mandated EVs and heat pumps being peed off.
.This time the W/S lull happened again, and, just like that, the government fell. INSTANT DEMOCRACY.
We should have it in the US, instead of endless lying, obfuscation, grandstanding, obstruction, etc., for up to 4 years, or, God forbid, 8 years
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NOTE: I lived in Norway for 3 years. My brother-in-law, a managing director, worked at Norsk Hydro, which provides almost all hydro power in Norway. We talk shop. He thinks the nutcases in Oslo should be exiled to Nova Zembla.
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Amen.
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He should also degree, federal rules and regulations have precedence over state rules state rules must be in accordance with federal rules
No special rules for each state or groups of states
Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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