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Chris Wright: “Nuclear geothermal [energy sources] are not as cheap as…”

Featuring: Chris Wright, Republican | Secretary of Energy | National

🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy

Published February 17, 2026 | Video Starts at 51:18

So I am all about, and the Trump administration is all about partnerships and cooperations to drive innovation forward again. An innovation that's consistent with energy being about humans and math. You know, are Nuclear geothermal [energy sources] are not as cheap as combined cycle natural gas today. No, but they could be. If they could be, innovation could get them there. That's worth investing in. (51:18–51:22)

CLAIM

Asserts that nuclear and geothermal energy sources are currently more expensive than combined cycle natural gas.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Chris Wright

“My whole life, the goal was America's got to be energy independent. We've got to produce more energy than we consume, which we last did in…”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 06:08-06:18
“We have 2 billion people today that still cook their meals the way our ancestors did, burning mostly wood or agricultural waste or dung.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 09:39-09:48
“We have 2 million deaths every year from indoor air pollution because they don't have basic clean cooking fuel.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 09:48-09:54
“The Globe has spent $10 trillion on wind, solar batteries and transmission lines.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 10:43-10:52
“That $10 trillion got a 2.6% of global energy, 1.2% from solar, 1.4% from wind.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 10:57-11:06
“On average, they [states with renewable Portfolio standards] have 50% higher electricity prices than the other 22 states.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 11:26-11:32
“The United States was the largest importer of natural gas in the world [20 years ago].”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 18:44-18:49
“Today we're by far and away the world's largest exporter [of natural gas].”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 18:57-19:01
“We have three or four minutes of battery storage in the United States. Take all the batteries in the United States, including in all the…”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 25:09-25:17
“Eight million people, the largest outward migration from a country in modern history.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 43:38-43:43
“In 2010, the United States was 25% of global consumption. And the European Union, the nations that then encompassed the European Union were…”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 04:41-04:55
“Today, the United States is 28% of global consumption. And that same nations are, are about 17% of global consumption.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 04:58-05:09
“We've had very little to no economic growth in dollar terms in the EU in the last 17 years.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 05:08-05:17
“President Trump brought to Washington and to the United States for energy policy. He brought back common sense and humanism.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 05:35-05:44
“The answer for America and he believes for the world, all nations of the world, it's not just an answer for America is more energy…”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 05:55-06:09
“It should be energy dominance. We should produce so much energy that we can reshore all the industries we pushed overseas to Asia, as…”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 06:27-06:39
“Global life expectancy at birth is 73 years.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 08:29-08:33
“A billion people live a life remotely recognizable to any of us in this planet.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 09:00-09:07
“That billion people consume about 13 barrels of oil per person per year.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 09:17-09:23
“The other 7 billion people on planet Earth consume 3 barrels of oil on average per person per year.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 09:22-09:31
“In Africa, it's less than one barrel [of oil per person per year].”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 09:30-09:34
“10% of people before President Trump was elected got a utility disconnection notice in the previous 12 months [in the United States].”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 09:56-10:04
“28 states in the United States have renewable Portfolio standards.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 11:23-11:27
“Last year, we got about 83% of global energy from hydrocarbons.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 12:25-12:30
“Nuclear is the technology out of those three that I think has the greatest growth potential.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 14:33-14:40
“Almost half of energy is used to manufacture materials.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 15:10-15:15
“The key part of that energy [for manufacturing] is high temperature process heat.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 15:14-15:18
“We get that [high temperature process heat] only from burning wood, oil, gas or coal.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 15:18-15:23
“The vast majority of [oil and gas] is still in the source rocks.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 18:17-18:20
“We've more than doubled our production and become the world's largest exporter [of natural gas].”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 19:09-19:13
“Natural gas is much cheaper than oil.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 19:40-19:43
“Natural gas burns cleaner than oil.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 19:40-19:43
“Natural gas has lower greenhouse gas emissions [than oil].”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 19:40-19:43
“By far the fastest growing energy source in the world in absolute terms is natural gas.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 20:04-20:10
“Coal and oil are second and third [in energy source growth].”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 20:10-20:13
“50 years ago, we got 83% of our energy from hydrocarbons. Today we get 83% of our energy from hydrocarbons.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 20:21-20:25
“Oil's grown a little over 1% compound annual growth rate [over 50 years].”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 20:24-20:30
“Coal's grown 2% compound annual growth rate [over 50 years].”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 20:31-20:36
“Natural gas has grown 3% compound annual growth rate [over 50 years].”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 20:39-20:43
“Can we continue to supply Europe at very low prices? Absolutely. For as far as the eye can see.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 20:47-20:54
“In the last 20 years we've tripled our oil production, more than doubled our natural gas production, but we barely produce more electricity…”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 21:04-21:14
“We ended the subsidies, or ended is even too strong of a word. We're phasing out the 34 year old subsidies for natural gas and, and solar…”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 21:49-22:00
“We just had a very cold spell in the United States. In fact, we had the largest ever draw, one week draw out of natural gas ever in United…”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 23:06-23:16
“At the very peak demand time in New England, wind, Solar and batteries were 2% of New England electricity.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 23:44-23:52
“We banned reprocessing foolishly way back in the 1970s.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 27:29-27:34
“We will start reprocessing likely in partnership with [Orano].”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 27:46-27:50
“We're going to re establish uranium enrichment in the United States.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 27:49-27:53
“We're going to develop multiple long term repositories for nuclear waste because we want to see nuclear growing.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 28:41-28:50
“We are big believers in renaissance coming in nuclear energy in the United States and around the world.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 29:04-29:10
“In the US Methane emissions have got. Methane intensity has gone down dramatically.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 30:51-30:57
“We had an idea and did pass at the federal level a methane regulation that would have been a total disaster.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 31:18-31:25
“The US does have tremendous interest in using Greenland for national security.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 33:47-33:53
“Rare earth elements is a terrible name because they're everywhere. They're not rare at all.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 34:24-34:29
“We saw Europe create a dependency on an unfavorable and unreliable supplier.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 35:50-35:57
“We can import US LNG in the north in Lithuania and in Poland and in the south in Croatia, in Greece.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 36:07-36:14
“We're in dialogue certainly with Bulgaria on nuclear power as well.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 36:35-36:40
“We have multiple grid expansion projects connecting across grids.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 38:04-38:12
“We've built precious little transmission lines in the last 20 or 30 years.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 38:31-38:37
“The cost of transmission is the fastest rising piece of the rising electricity bills in the United States.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 39:03-39:11
“We have ramping up efforts from the DOE in fusion now inertial confinement every bit as much as magnetic confinement fusion.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 40:43-40:52
“We’re talking about partnerships overseas with the European endeavors in fusion.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 40:52-40:58
“Venezuela has just been, you know, 26 years, spiraling down from one of the wealthiest countries in the Western Hemisphere to a country in…”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 43:26-43:38
“President Trump said, we're going to enforce a quarantine on the oil exports from Venezuela, and I bet you things will change pretty…”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 44:27-44:37
“It's a little less than a million barrels a day today. I think you'll see several hundred thousand barrels a day of additional production by…”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 45:37-45:47
“World oil demand grows by about a million barrels a day per year.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 45:46-45:51
“We have 2 billion people and over 2 million deaths per year on a solvable problem. That's just energy and infrastructure and even a…”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 47:12-47:24
“There's only three organizations that collect careful energy data.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 47:31-47:35
“For the US to remain a long term member, [the IEA] has to finish the reform.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 47:42-47:48
“Geothermal can provide power 24/7. You don't need the wind blowing, you don't need the sun shining.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 50:26-50:34
“You can ramp up at peak demand times and you can ramp down at low demand times [with geothermal energy].”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 50:38-50:45
“I've just never seen math that looks encouraging on large scale biofuels.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 52:47-52:54
“Humans are ingenious. So all the time we have data we continually get more efficient at using energy.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 53:15-53:23