During Wednesday’s House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) questioned Energy Secretary Chris Wright about geothermal energy.
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00:00Thank you, Mr. Newhouse. At this time, I'd like to recognize my friend and colleague
00:06from Nevada, Ms. Lee. Mr. Secretary, we talked earlier about our eight caucuses. Ms. Lee
00:12is my co-chair on a critically important caucus, the Nuclear Cleanup Caucus, which is probably
00:20one of the largest bipartisan caucuses in all of Congress. I took that over from my
00:26dear friend Doc Hastings from Mr. Newhouse's district. At this time, I'd like to recognize
00:33my friend and colleague, Ms. Lee. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning. It's
00:41nice to see you, Secretary Wright. Thank you for being here and your work. Since coming
00:47to Congress, I've worked with everyone, Republicans, Democrats, multiple administrations, to make
00:55sure that no federal money goes to the failed Yucca Mountain repository project. Your assessment
01:03was music to my ears and Nevadans' ears who have opposed this for decades. My heart goes
01:13out and to my colleagues who really need a solution to nuclear fuel, spent nuclear fuel. That's
01:25why I am proud to work with the Chairman on the Nuclear Cleanup Caucus because I don't think
01:31you should always be a brick wall that you should come up with an alternative solution. It was
01:39good to hear your assessment on consent-based siting and asking communities to opt in, which I do believe
01:49is the best approach to nuclear waste. I just wanted to confirm and get your commitment that in your final
01:58fiscal year 26 budget request, it will reflect your commitment that not one dime for the Department of Energy
02:08Energy to license or otherwise force a nuclear waste repository on my home state of Nevada.
02:17So I'm prohibited for talking about the details of the budget request that hasn't been released yet,
02:23but yeah, I think you heard my strong sentiment that the solution to this problem is to get communities
02:28to opt in and not a top-down force down. So I think we're aligned on that, and I think we're also aligned,
02:36hopefully, that it's not just some people, but it's all of us need a solution for long-term disposal
02:42to waste, but then we've got to do it a different way. The ways we've tried in the past decades have
02:47simply not worked. Thank you. Thank you, and I'm happy to continue to work with you and your team on that.
02:53I want to pivot to something that I do think it's safe to say that you and I both believe in
02:58and is in our country's best interest, and that's more geothermal energy.
03:05At your confirmation hearing, you referred to geothermal as an abundant energy resource right below our feet.
03:12So the DOE has estimated that thanks to enhanced geothermal systems, the U.S. has the potential
03:19to affordably capture enough of our domestic geothermal resources
03:24to power the equivalent of more than 65 million homes by 2050.
03:30But continued support from the Department of Energy will be essential.
03:35Can we expect that, again, I know you're probably limited in identifying,
03:41but can we expect in the final budget request that it will reflect the enthusiasm you have expressed,
03:50in particular through robust funding of the Geothermal Technologies Office,
03:56as well as investments in next-generation geothermal demonstration projects?
04:03Yes. As you know, I can't speak to any specifics in the final budget request that will be coming,
04:09but yes, I share your belief.
04:11What's valuable about geothermal is you get energy when you need it and when you want it,
04:16and you can even flex it up and down. So I think it's a tremendous energy resource.
04:21I look forward to helping to push it forward. Both that will be government efforts,
04:26but the biggest driver there, like with nuclear, is going to be commercial private money,
04:30which has started to flow in that space. And so I want to work not just at the department,
04:36but together with commercial players in that space. How can we enable more capital?
04:40How can we make permitting simple? How can we help on technology development?
04:44But yeah, I am bullish on the future of geothermal, but permitting in a sober government is necessary to make that happen.
04:53Well, I have several bills that are bipartisan aimed at streamlining the permitting process.
05:01So I hope to get your support on those.
05:04I think that's important. So I'm very happy to hear that.
05:06My state doesn't have much oil or gas to speak of. In fact, more than 20 out of the 22,000 federal oil and gas leases issued in Nevada since 1953,
05:19fewer than 100 or less than one half of 1% have ever produced any energy.
05:25But what we do have, 300 or more sunny days each year.
05:30And so I was pleased to see the BLM approve the first utility-scale solar facility on federal land since the start of the Trump administration,
05:41which was in Yuma County.
05:43Can we interpret this positive news to mean that the DOE under the new administration will also champion solar
05:51as part of the all-above energy strategy, including maintaining and supporting the department's solar energy technologies office?
06:02Well, my comment on that, I've never been all of the above myself,
06:07because there's energy sources that swallow money and don't deliver value.
06:13So I'm not for them, but I am for all energy sources that are affordable, reliable, secure, and better our energy system.
06:22And I think solar, you see meaningful growth of that in the marketplace with commercial money.
06:27It's heavily subsidized, so that's a distortion there.
06:30But yeah, solar, I believe, my personal belief, an energy source with the future.
06:35And yes, and I think you'll see continued work on solar at the Department of Energy.
06:39Great. Thank you.
06:41And I, I'm sorry.
06:42Thanks, gentlelady, for her questions at this time.