Energy Secretary Chris Wright gave a clue this week what he feels about government regulations of commercial nuclear and geothermal production.
Get out of the way of private industry! It’s what he told reporters this week during a visit to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“They’re such high bars that we’ve just seen almost nothing happen in next-generation nuclear. Our goal is to get that out of the way, bring private businesses together and figure out what kind of nudge we might need to get shovels in the ground and next-generation small modular reactors happening,” he said during a news conference.
The Albuquerque Journal reported Wright believes that by growing commercial nuclear and geothermal production, it might help meet the nation’s growing energy demands. Wright, the former oil company executive from Denver, Colorado said the federal government should get of of the way of private industry by reducing regulations.
“Now, we have huge demand growth from AI — from resource and manufacturing in our country for building AI to a huge demand growth of electricity,” Wright said. “We need to handle this better. We need to grow our electricity production from sources all over the map.”
The Journal reported Wright anticipates growth of oil and solar energy production in New Mexico but also would like to see more in the areas of nuclear and geothermal energy production in the state.
`“Whatever provides affordable, reliable, secure energy, this administration will do everything we can, which is mostly to unleash the private sector to allow those energy sources to grow,” Wright said.
