Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump‘s nominee for treasury secretary, responded to a Democratic lawmaker’s claim that the United States is facing off against China in an “arms race in clean energy.”
The retort occurred on Thursday during a confirmation hearing held by the Senate Finance Committee. Bessent responded to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who began his final question by touting the “biggest transformation on clean energy in American history”—an apparent reference to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
“That is our package that basically said the tax code as it relates to energy is a broken-down mess. And we basically said we’re going to have a technology-neutral system: the more you reduce carbon, the bigger your tax savings,” Wyden said.
“Now there is a big effort in the Trump administration to reverse it. I think that’s going to be bad for the economy, but it is going to be damn good for China because we are in an arms race in clean energy with them. Are you going to be on the side of people who want to unravel this?” he asked.
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“Sen. Wyden. Just so we can frame this for everyone in the room, China will build a hundred new coal plants this year. There is not a clean energy race, there is an energy race,” Bessent began.
“China will build 10 nuclear plants this year. That is not solar. I am in favor of more nuclear plants and I would note that the IRA as scored by the CBO is wildly out of control in terms of spending on the upside,” he added, referring to the Congressional Budget Office.
“Well, first of all, the clean energy package does protect nuclear because members on both sides of the aisle in this room wanted it to be that way,” Wyden replied.
“But if you’re going to talk about fossils, the United States has achieved a greater level of energy security than we’ve had in generations,” the senator continued. “Oil and gas production is at record highs. And it’s not just that, but it’s about clean energy. And I’m very troubled by your position denying that we’re in an arms race with China on clean energy, because we definitely are.”
