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Chris Wright: “We are big believers in renaissance coming in nuclear energy…”

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 29:04

But if we can get volume up and innovation up and time down, we believe the costs will drive down a lot. So We are big believers in renaissance coming in nuclear energy in the United States and around the world. And we appreciate your partnership in that. Yeah, I think that's a great success story. (29:04–29:10)

CLAIM

Asserts belief in a forthcoming renaissance in nuclear energy in the U.S. and globally.

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
“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
“Nuclear geothermal [energy sources] are not as cheap as combined cycle natural gas today.”
🇺🇸 Conference with Chris Wright, Secretary, U.S. Department of Energy | Uploaded February 17, 2026 | 51:18-51:22
“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