Any time a new Administration takes over the country, a lot of things change, not the least of which is often new energy policy priorities. Such is the case as the new Administration takes its place in Washington.

On March 20, the new U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, delivered remarks at the 43rd annual CERAWeek by S&P Global, outlining the Administration’s and DOE’s commitment to expanding the production of affordable, reliable, and secure American energy. (In 1983, CERA [Cambridge Energy Research Associates] was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Daniel Yergin and James Rosenfield.)

In his remarks, Secretary Wright said that the new administration will focus on increasing domestic fossil fuel production, and he dismissed the previous Administration’s policy of focusing on renewable energy, though he said that solar, storage, and electric vehicles will continue to have a place in the new Administration’s energy policy initiatives.

Some of Secretary Wright’s remarks below highlight his department’s primary philosophies and plans:

“Energy is the enabler of everything that we do. Everything. Energy is not a sector of the economy; it is the sector that enables every other sector. Energy is life.”

“Natural gas today supplies 25% of global primary energy and has been the fastest growing source of energy over the last 15 years.”

“Everywhere wind and solar penetration have increased significantly. Prices on the grid went up and stability of the grid went down.”

“Natural gas is the largest source of home heating in the United States. It is central to the rapidly growing petrochemical industry and the largest supplier of processed heat for manufacturing steel, cement, countless metals, gypsum, semiconductors, polysilicon and thousands of other materials. Oh yes, and natural gas is also responsible for 43% of U.S. electricity.”

“Beyond the obvious scale and cost problems, there is simply no physical way that wind, solar and batteries could replace the myriad uses of natural gas.”

“I have worked on nuclear, solar, oil, geothermal and natural gas. I was actively involved working in four of these energy technologies just a few weeks ago when I got my new job.”

According to Secretary Wright, the new Administration will treat climate change from what it is, a global physical phenomenon that is a side effect of building the modern world. “We have indeed raised global atmospheric CO2 concentration by 50% in the process of more than doubling human life expectancy, lifting millions of the world’s, lifting almost all of the world’s citizens out of grinding poverty, launching modern medicine, telecommunications, planes, trains and automobiles, too. Everything in life involves trade-offs. Everything.”

“No more all-of-government approach to making energy more expensive, less reliable, and making it nearly possible to build more scale things in our country. We are unabashedly pursuing a policy of more American energy production and infrastructure, not less. Our goal is to re-industrialize America, not de-industrialize America.”

“We are working to launch the long-awaited American nuclear renaissance, fission and fusion. We want more reliable, affordable, secure energy.”

“We also plan to reverse the destructive mandates, forcing everyone to buy EVs that have been wreaking havoc on our auto industry and forcing higher prices and reduced choices on consumers.”

“Combining AI and quantum computing to drug discovery is likely to yield simply breathtaking results. The same is true for potential advancements in fusion energy, likely to be demonstrated during this administration.”

Secretary Wright also had some comments on AI:

“I’ve been visiting our national laboratories, which are underappreciated gems in our country. The excitement is palpable to apply AI specifically for scientific advancement. AI impacts on national defense, both offensive and defensive, are likely also transformative.

“The implications on national defense make it simply critical that America leads the AI race. We have the talent, innovative spirit, and leading companies to win, but all that won’t matter if we can’t deliver the energy. AI is an energy-intensive manufacturing industry.”

“It takes massive amounts of electricity to generate intelligence. The more energy invested, the more intelligence produced. Since the demand for energy is unlimited, since the demand for intelligence is unlimited, so will be the demand for energy.”

And he concludes:

“None of this will be possible without thoughtful, rational policies on energy and a truly honest assessment of climate change. We are entering truly exciting times for human progress if we play our cards right, if we can get out of the way and unleash the human spirit.”