Energy secretary's dreams collide with Trump's cuts

Politico

5 hours ago

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has big plans for technologies like advanced nuclear reactors and geothermal energy — but they could be hobbled by the Trump administration's proposed budget cuts to national labs.
As Brian Dabbs and I write today, Wright has vowed to 'make it vastly easier to build power plants in the United States.' The secretary is pushing for the Department of Energy's 17 labs, which have been central to energy research since the Manhattan Project during World War II, to help jumpstart the administration's 'energy dominance' agenda.
The Idaho National Laboratory, for example, announced results this week of a first-of-its-kind test to lower the amount of waste produced by reactors. Wright has also publicly supported lab research on nuclear fusion, a potential zero-carbon form of electricity that involves the same reaction powering the sun.
Here comes the White HouseBut President Donald Trump's proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 would slash the budget of the National Energy Technology Laboratory — which supports fossil fuel research — by 32 percent and cut fusion programs at multiple labs, including Argonne, Brookhaven and Idaho.
'As much as the secretary is talking about how excited he is about fusion, the budget they proposed cut it,' said Andrew Holland, CEO of the Fusion Industry Association.
Wind, solar, electric vehicles and building efficiency research would also be cut sharply under Trump's plan, a shift that analysts say could slow development of those technologies. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado would see some of the sharpest cuts overall, with funding declining by more than 56 percent from current levels under Trump's plan.
DOE says many programs are being reorganized. The budget plan would shuffle funding for administration priorities such as geothermal, increasing it at NREL while reducing it at Lawrence Berkeley and Sandia labs.
Wright pushes onWright is backing higher levels of funding than Trump proposed for artificial intelligence and fusion. Speaking at the National Energy Technology Laboratory on Wednesday, he also signaled that his plan to build data centers on federal land — including multiple national labs — could include installing new nuclear power.
'You will see data centers built on national lab property,' he said. 'You also will see next-generation nuclear reactors tested' on federal lands sometime next year, he added.
The data center plan could become Wright's biggest footprint on the labs. The department told POLITICO's E&E News this week it is weighing next steps after receiving hundreds of comments on the proposal in May. Industry insiders say the department appears to be looking for 'combined packages' that involve building data centers with co-located power plants or other sources of electricity.
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That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.