Energy secretary is forced to defend Trump's Empire Wind rescue
Energy Secretary Chris Wright was thrust into the uncomfortable position of defending the Trump administration's decision to save a New York offshore wind project that it had pushed to the brink of collapse.
Wright was pressed about the rationale for lifting a stop-work order on Empire Wind 1 during an interview Monday with Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum. The Energy secretary is an unlikely defender of the decision. A former oil executive, he has repeatedly criticized wind and solar as electricity sources since taking over the department. He also has limited authority over offshore wind development, which is located almost exclusively in federal waters and is regulated by the Interior Department.
Yet his comments offer the most detailed explanation to date about the administration's move to reverse the order that had halted construction on the project in mid-April.
Advertisement
'The global record of offshore wind has been a train wreck. It's just been very expensive electricity and intermittent electricity has driven prices up. But Empire Wind's a trickier issue because it's well under construction and billions have already been spent. So it's tricky what to do with midstream projects,' Wright said. 'More important for New York by far is to build the Constitution and the NESE [Northeast Energy Supply Enhancement] pipelines that can bring lower cost, cleaner energy to New Yorkers, lower the cost of home heating, lower the cost of electricity.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
26 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Texas Deploys 5,000 National Guard Soldiers Ahead of Protests
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is deploying 5,000 National Guard soldiers and 2,000 state troopers to assist local law enforcement during planned protests this weekend. Any demonstrators engaging in violence or damaging property will be arrested, Abbott warned in a statement Thursday.
TechCrunch
27 minutes ago
- TechCrunch
Battery manufacturer Powin files for bankruptcy months after landing $200M loan
Battery manufacturer Powin filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday. The Oregon-based company said it has more than $300 million in debt. The Chapter 11 filing will let the company continue operating while it restructures its debt. Powin manufactured grid-scale batteries using lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cells from China. Powin had been searching for alternative domestic suppliers, but the supply chain wasn't sufficiently mature, Jeff Waters, the company's former CEO, told Bloomberg in April. The company laid off nearly 250 employees earlier this month, and just 85 remain, less than a fifth of what it started the year with. Alongside the bankruptcy filing, Waters was replaced by Brian Krane, Powin's chief projects officer. Powin was a survivor of the first clean tech boom over a decade ago. The company was taken private in 2018, and it received $135 million in growth equity in 2022 from investors including Energy Impact Partners, GIC, and Trilantic Energy Partners. More recently, it secured a $200 million revolving credit facility from KKR. In recent years, Powin had grown alongside the boom in grid-scale battery storage, ranked third in the U.S. in terms of installed capacity and fourth worldwide. The company did not say what spurred the sudden rise in debt, though given its reliance on Chinese LFP cells, tariffs may have played a roll.
Fox News
27 minutes ago
- Fox News
Wesley Hunt, Texas Congressman, Explains What Influenced His Decision To Enlist In The U.S. Army
Texas Republican Congressman Wesley Hunt joins Fox Across America host Jimmy Failla to shed light on what inspired him to enlist in the U.S. Army, where he spent eight years as an Apache helicopter pilot. The rising star in the House of Representatives also tells Jimmy about what prompted him to pursue a career in public service following his time in the military. Take a listen to the interview below: Listen to full episodes of Fox Across America below:
