Secretary Wright Delivers Plenary Remarks at CERAWeek 2026 in Houston, Texas - March 23, 2026

What I'd like to do now is introduce scientist, engineer, and the 17th U.S. Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright. They like you. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. It's a true honor to be here at CERA Week once again. When I stood here last year, the world was in a very different place. You might assume that I'm talking about geopolitics. Yes, a lot has changed. What I'm thinking about is how people think and talk about energy. We'll talk about geopolitics a bit later with Dan. I believe that we have made great progress in restoring honesty and candor in the dialogue about energy, what it is and what it isn't. The truth is simple. Energy is life, and the world needs massively more of it. President Trump's goal from day one was to get rid of the nonsense and restore common sense. That means turbocharging American energy production, including electricity that's been relatively stagnant for a few decades, surging energy production will drive down costs for Americans, drive reshoring of manufacturing back to our country, and that in turn will drive up wages, lower costs, higher wages. In short, that's the economic agenda. The plan is to strengthen our economy, our national security, and lead the world in AI, a truly transformative technology. Last year, I led off by saying we ended the Biden pause on LNG permitting. Since then, over 18 BCF a day of new permits have been approved for LNG exports out of our country. That amount alone permitted in the last 13 months would make America by far the world's largest exporter of natural gas. America's superpower is natural gas. It is our largest and cheapest source of electricity. It is our main heating fuel. It is our main industrial fuel for petrochemicals, fertilizer. Natural gas is also the key to the United States to lead in AI and make it economically compelling to bring back energy-intensive manufacturing to our country. Today, pipeline-delivered natural gas is less than 50 cents per gallon diesel in an energy-equivalent basis. This is compelling. Oil remains the most important source of energy in the world. It continues to slowly lose market share to less expensive and more abundant natural gas. But nothing matches the energy density and flexibility of oil. No oil, no modern world. This year, we stopped energy subtraction policies. Using my authorities at DOE, we stopped the closure of 17 gigawatts of coal power plants that were slated to prematurely retire. Winter storm firms that hit 22 states across the eastern half of our country in late January would have caused significant blackouts and likely led to hundreds of American deaths if we had not kept those 17 gigawatts of coal power on the grid. The grid in many regions was pushed to the edge. Fern was a greater challenge to heating and electricity generation than URI was, the very intense cold front that hit Texas and my home state of Colorado five years ago. I can say it was larger and bigger by one stat that tells that story. That week in late January of this year drove the largest ever withdrawal from storage of natural gas, 360 BCF in one week. That's when grids matter, is when they're pushed to the edge. When electricity demand rises high, supply must meet demand or people die. Families get thrown into chaos and economic damage is severe. Comparing the frigid cold in that week during Fern, the end of January this year, to last year in the same week, so season to season, what was the performance of our electricity generating sources? Natural gas this year produced 47% more electricity during the week of Fern than it did last year in late January. Coal was up 24%. When demand goes up, supply has to go up. Nuclear was flat and that's what nuclear does. It's unimpacted by the weather, it's rock steady, but it's not great at being variable. It was flat in both cases. Wind power was down 40% in the week of peak demand versus what it delivered last year. That's not helpful. To give one region specific example, let me talk about New England. I talk about electricity grids and say what matters is that you deliver at peak demand time. That's what matters. Right now we got hundreds of gigawatts of spare capacity on the grid, not a problem, but you have to be able to deliver at peak demand time. That's what limits. Can you put a new data center? Can you add a new manufacturing center? So what happened at New England? January 27th in the evening, peak demand sign, system stretched to the edge. Wind, solar, and batteries combined delivered 2% of New England's electricity at peak demand time. New England got 3% of its electricity from burning trash and wood. Not much help at the most important time. It's not electrons on the grid, it's being able to deliver when demand is at peak. Launching a true renaissance for nuclear power and nuclear for process heat is a top priority of this administration. President Trump set an aggressive goal as he tends to do early in the administration last year and said he wanted three of these next generation reactors critical by July 4 of this year. Why this year? Because it's our 250th anniversary. That's an aggressive time frame. As I stand here today, we look to be on track to have three next generation nuclear reactors running. They won't be selling electricity into the grid, but all the nuclear systems will be running and generating the heat that would be used to produce electricity by July 4 of this year. That's exciting to me. We're reforming permitting for nuclear as well as major efforts in domestic uranium enrichment, fuel fabrication, reprocessing, and yes, permanent waste disposal sites via a competitive state-level opt-in process. Instead of telling people it will be here and getting that natural reaction, we're asking states to compete who wants to host nuclear innovation campuses. The interest has been tremendous. Many of our national labs and commercial companies are making huge strides towards harnessing fusion energy, something I'm extremely excited about, and via multiple pathways. We're also helping to unleash next generation geothermal, advancing energy storage, and new solar technologies as well. We are working hard to bring realism to energy policies at home and abroad as well. For most nations, this has been a welcome breath of fresh air. Not entirely so in Europe, which represents three-quarters of the members of the International Energy Agency. But I'm proud of our progress so far. Very candid and productive dialogues. You can see the progress we've made overseas by the dialogues within the International Energy Agency about an emergency release of petroleum stockpiles to offset the flow of oil that is impeded right now coming out of the Straits of Hormuz. In a few dialogues, we quickly got agreement across the board to release 400 million barrels. And the biggest outperformer in the agreed release was Japan. Because where is the problem most intense? It's in Asia. We want to get oil into the Asian refineries and have as little downturn in refining capacity as possible. Our international goal is simple. Empower our allies with affordable, reliable, secure energy. Energy trade and infrastructure tend to create commerce, not conflict. There are exceptions. Iran has been a violent, brutal 47-year exception. Dan and I will likely elaborate on this fact. Ultimately, discussions about energy need to be less political, less ideological, and less cult-like. The conversation should be grounded in two things, humans and math. Being serious about humans means energy policy is about expanding access, improving affordability. That includes empowering Africans with reliable energy, clean cooking fuels, growing electricity access, and clear pathways to economic growth. Limiting energy limits human potential. Expanding energy expands opportunity. I want to close by restating two facts that should guide every serious energy conversation, whatever your vision of the future may be. Number one, energy is life, and the world needs massively more energy. Number two, the modern world is energized by and made of hydrocarbons. Those facts guide me and this administration every day. Our mission remains clear, grow energy, improve American lives, strengthen American security, and strengthen the world. Thank you for what you all do every day to energize the world.