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“We need more energy”—and we’ve got to get more of it from natural gas and nuclear, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told attendees at CERAWeek on Monday.

More domestic energy: “We are unabashedly pursuing a policy of more American energy production and infrastructure, not less,” Wright, the multiday conference’s keynote speaker, said of the Trump administration. “Our goal is to reindustrialize America, not deindustrialize America.” 

• Today, natural gas powers 25% of the world’s primary energy—and it has been the fastest-growing energy source of the past 15 years, he continued, adding that the fuel is the top method of home heating in the U.S. and is “responsible for fully half of global food production.”
• Wright discussed President Trump’s day-one lifting of the previous administration’s liquefied natural gas export permit ban and said, “Today I can announce our fourth action in this regard: improving the Delphi Offshore Louisiana LNG export terminal,” which follows the administration’s extension earlier this month of an export permit for the critical Golden Pass LNG project.  

Nuclear, too: Wright also emphasized the growing role the Trump administration is planning for nuclear energy.   

• “We are working to launch the long-awaited American nuclear renaissance: fission and fusion. We want more reliable, affordable, secure energy.” 

Winning the AI race: Artificial intelligence “is going to be truly transformative, many of the ways in which we can’t even foresee today,” Wright said.  

• “The implications on national defense make it simply critical that America leads the AI race. We have the talent, innovative spirit and leading companies to win, but all of that won’t matter if we can’t deliver the energy. AI is an energy-intensive manufacturing industry. It takes massive amounts of electricity to generate intelligence. The more energy invested, the more intelligence produced.”  

Lowering energy costs: To bring energy costs down, the Trump administration will “work at warp speed to enable the needed growth in electricity supply without saddling consumers with ever-rising electricity prices.”  

• Success on this front will require “significant regulatory changes, massive private capital deployment and innovative partnerships,” Wright said.