Oklo, an advanced nuclear technology company, announced on Thursday plans to build a “first-of-its-kind” nuclear fuel recycling center.
The first phase of the project is expected to cost nearly $1.7 billion and create 800 jobs. The facility, to be built in Tennessee, will be the first privately-funded nuclear fuel recycling center.
“Fuel is the single most important factor in bringing advanced nuclear energy to market,” Oklo co-founder and CEO Jacob DeWitte said in a statement. “By recycling used nuclear fuel at an industrial scale, we are turning waste into watts, cutting costs, and establishing a secure U.S. supply chain that will accelerate deployment of clean, reliable, and affordable power. Tennessee is showing the nation that recycling can be done commercially.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright served on Oklo’s board of directors before being nominated to head the Department of Energy in the Trump administration.
The facility to be built will recycle used nuclear fuel, offering a potential solution to a divisive issue that has plagued the nuclear energy industry: how to dispose of spent fuel. Answers to the question have proven difficult, such as in the case of the <a href="https://19january2021snapshot.epa.gov/radiation/what-yucca-mountain-repository_.html">proposed</a> Yucca Mountain repository that has drawn strong opposition from local and state leaders in Nevada.
“The recycling facility will recover energy-bearing materials from used nuclear fuel to be fabricated into metallic fuel for fast reactors. Once used in a reactor, this process significantly reduces waste volumes for more economical, clean, and efficient disposal pathways,” the Oklo press release says.
The “metallic fuel” can be used the power fast reactors such as Oklo’s Aurora powerhouse, a zero-emission power plant that “only needs to be refueled once every decade (or longer),” according to <a href="https://oklo.com/energy/default.aspx">Oklo</a>. Maintenance on Aurora will take place more often, however.
&#8220;Everyone who wants American energy to be cleaner, more affordable, and more sustainable should be rejoicing today. Oklo&#8217;s program to turn Cold War-era plutonium into safe nuclear fuel for today — and tomorrow — is a bold and exciting achievement,” Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, told The Daily Wire in a statement.
Oklo and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) are looking at more opportunities to collaborate, such as Oklo handling nuclear fuel recycling for the TVA and building other facilities in the state.
Energy and Environment Legal Institute senior policy fellow Steve Milloy, who worked on the 2016 Trump transition team, credited President Donald Trump with the project’s success. Trump signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/05/deploying-advanced-nuclear-reactor-technologies-for-national-security/">executive order</a> in May encouraging “the rapid development, deployment, and use of advanced nuclear technologies to support national security objectives.”
“President Trump’s leadership is the reason this breakthrough is happening. It’s telling that, even in the face of historic progress, anti-nuclear activists would rather tear down solutions than acknowledge success. This project offers the American people exactly what they deserve: affordable, reliable, and clean energy,” Milloy told The Daily Wire in a statement.

Jacob DeWitte

Red State To House ‘First-Of-Its-Kind’ Recycling Center For Used Nuclear Fuel

Department of Energy

Donald Trump

Energy

Nuclear Power

Tennessee

U.S.

The Trump administration plans to make available about 20 metric tons of Cold War-era plutonium from dismantled nuclear warheads to U.S. power companies as a potential fuel for reactors, according to a source familiar with the matter and a draft memo outlining the plan.
Plutonium has previously only been converted to fuel for commercial U.S. reactors in short-lived tests. The plan would follow through on an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in May ordering the government to halt much of its existing program to dilute and dispose of surplus plutonium, and instead provide it as a fuel for advanced nuclear technologies.
The Department of Energy, or DOE, plans to announce in coming days it will seek proposals from industry, said the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The source cautioned that because the plan is still a draft, its final details could change pending further discussions.
The plutonium would be offered to industry at little to no cost &#8212; with a catch. Industry will be responsible for costs of transportation, designing, building, and decommissioning DOE-authorized facilities to recycle, process and manufacture the fuel, the memo said.
The details on the volume of the plutonium, industry&#8217;s responsibilities in the plan and the potential timing of a U.S. announcement, have not been previously reported. The 20 metric tons would be drawn from a larger, 34-metric-ton stockpile of weapons-grade plutonium that the United States had previously committed to dispose of under a non-proliferation agreement with Russia in 2000.
The Department of Energy did not confirm or deny the Reuters reporting, saying only that the department is &#8220;evaluating a variety of strategies to build and strengthen domestic supply chains for nuclear fuel, including plutonium,&#8221; as directed by Trump&#8217;s orders.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_campaign=summer&amp;utm_content=editorialsummersale&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">End of Summer Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
Boosting the U.S. power industry is a policy priority for the Trump administration as U.S. electricity demand rises for the first time in two decades on the boom in data centers needed for artificial intelligence.
The idea of using surplus plutonium for fuel has raised concerns among nuclear safety experts who argue a previous similar effort failed.
Under the 2000 agreement, the plutonium was initially planned to be converted to mixed oxide fuel, or MOX, to run in nuclear power plants. But in 2018, the first Trump administration killed the contract for a MOX project that it said would have cost more than $50 billion.
The U.S. Energy Department holds surplus plutonium at heavily guarded weapons facilities including Savannah River in South Carolina, Pantex in Texas, and Los Alamos in New Mexico. Plutonium has a half-life of 24,000 years and must be handled with protective gear.
Until Trump&#8217;s May order, the U.S. program to dispose of the plutonium has involved blending it with an inert material and storing it in an experimental underground storage site called the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico.
The Energy Department has estimated that burying the plutonium would cost $20 billion.
&#8220;Trying to convert this material into reactor fuel is insanity. It would entail trying to repeat the disastrous MOX fuel program and hoping for a different result,&#8221; said Edwin Lyman, a nuclear physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
&#8220;The excess plutonium is a dangerous waste product and DOE should stick to the safer, more secure and far cheaper plan to dilute and directly dispose of it in WIPP.&#8221;
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Lisa Shumaker)

Trump Plans To Make Cold War-Era Plutonium Available For Nuclear Power

President Donald Trump&#8217;s energy dominance agenda could raise the United States GDP by up to 1.9% within the next decade, according to a new report.
The White House Council of Economic Advisors released a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/The-Economic-Benefits-of-Unleashing-American-Energy.pdf">report</a> on the impact of Trump’s energy policies and deregulation on Thursday. Experts estimated that additional energy production alongside deregulatory policies could bolster economic growth in the United States, growing GDP “by at least 0.56-1.90 percent by 2035.”
“Unleashing energy abundance was key to the historic job, wage, economic, and investment growth that President Trump delivered during his first term,” White House spoeksman Kush Desai told The Daily Wire in a statement. “Energy abundance is again key for President Trump’s second term push to cement America’s dominance in AI and restore our industrial base, and the Administration is committed to pulling every stop to power the restoration of American Greatness.”
The report identified a few key weak points in the United States’ current energy production and distribution system, such as long delays for government approvals, aging infrastructure, and supply chains for critical minerals that run through “unreliable or adversarial sources.” But the United States sits upon a wealth of natural resources that contributed to the country being the “world’s leading producer of petroleum, natural gas, and nuclear power” in 2023.
Earlier this month, a Department of Energy report <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/department-energy-releases-report-evaluating-us-grid-reliability-and-security">estimated</a> that blackouts across the United States “could increase by 100 times in 2030 if the U.S. continues to shutter reliable power sources and fails to add additional firm capacity.”
The Trump administration wants to accelerate U.S. energy production in part because the country’s budding AI industry uses massive amounts of electricity.
“By some estimates, executing a ChatGPT prompt can be 10 times more energy intensive than a Google search,” the report states.
By 2030, AI data processing centers in the United States will use more electricity than the “production of aluminum, steel, cement, chemicals and all other energy-intensive goods combined,” according to the International Energy Agency.
With AI development could come meaningful increases in production.
“If half of U.S. businesses engage in widespread use of AI by 2034, the annual productivity growth of labor could be 1.5 percentage points higher starting in 2034 than it would otherwise be without widespread AI adoption. This boost in labor productivity could, in turn, increase GDP growth by 0.4 percent in 2034,” the report states.
The surging demand for electricity by AI data centers could lead to price spikes for energy consumers. In order to prevent that, the report states that the United States needs to build out energy production from relatively inexpensive, reliable sources, such as natural gas.
“[C]ombined-cycle natural gas power plants are currently the lowest-cost reliable power generation option in the U.S., with a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of about $30 per megawatt-hour,” the report states. The price for energy output from natural gas is much lower than renewables, which the report priced at “$45-$55 per MWh” because of the additional cost of building batteries to ensure reliable energy when solar panels and wind turbines are not able to generate electricity.
The Trump administration is also slowing the retirement of nuclear and coal plants to avoid large gaps in electrical production from lost sources. Other plants, such as Michigan’s Palisades nuclear power plant, may be revived and put back into the U.S. electrical grid.
In addition to protecting, reviving, and building energy production, the administration is also working through a slew of deregulatory plans to streamline government approvals and encourage quicker energy development, including reforms to landmark environmental regulations such as the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act.

U.S. Economy Will Boom Under Trump’s Energy Dominance Agenda, New Report Shows

Economy

White House

The second Trump administration has made a point of rolling back regulations that restrict the functionality of home appliances in the name of efficiency during its first 100 days.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright laid out what the administration has accomplished on appliance efficiency standards that should result in a better quality of life for consumers during a trip to a Georgia factory that could have been shut down if not for deregulation.
At the Rinnai America Corporation’s manufacturing facility in Griffin, Georgia, they make tankless water heaters, one of the appliances for which the Department of Energy has postponed new, more restrictive standards. Tankless water heaters, of course, are beloved appliances in households across the country where residents have decided they don&#8217;t like running out of hot water for showers.
Wright&#8217;s agency postponed water heater rules on March 24. The rules would have punished companies such as Rinnai, according to the Department of Energy.
“Rinnai is the only company manufacturing non-condensing tankless water heaters in the United States. A Biden-era rule would have effectively banned these products — putting more than 200 Georgia jobs at risk, undermining U.S. manufacturing, and stripping away a cost-effective, high-efficiency option from American households,” a department <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-energy-chris-wright-visit-rinnai-america-griffin-georgia-mark-100-days" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a> said.
On the same day in March that Wright’s department took action on water heater rules, the Energy Department postponed and rescinded rules on a slate of other household appliances, as well. It lifted rules and deadlines on appliances such as walk-in coolers and freezers, central air conditioners and heat pumps, electric motors, ceiling fans, dehumidifiers, and external power supplies.
“Today, Americans are paying less at the pump and have more choices for home appliances thanks to President Trump cutting red tape and unleashing the production of affordable, reliable, secure American energy,” Wright said in a <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-wright-highlights-100-days-unleashing-american-energy-under-president-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> marking Trump’s 100th day in office.
President Donald Trump joked about actions his administration took on showerheads during a rally on Tuesday.
“We&#8217;ve opened up your faucets,” Trump <a href="https://x.com/AutismCapital/status/1917358070298193943" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “I don&#8217;t like taking a shower where the water goes drip, drip, drip onto my luxuriant hair. I need a lot of water. I need everything I can get. I don&#8217;t need to be under a shower trying to get water to come out of that damn thing.”
Last month, Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/maintaining-acceptable-water-pressure-in-showerheads/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ordered</a> the repeal of a 13,000-word regulation defining the term “showerhead.” The Energy Department also postponed Biden-era efficiency standards for manufactured housing and began the process to lift efficiency regulations on portable electric spas.

Chris Wright

How Trump’s Team Made Home Appliances Great Again In First 100 Days

Here's All The Ways Trump Is Making Appliances Great Again In Just 100 Days

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright will travel to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on Friday to tour nuclear facilities and take part in a summit on the future of artificial intelligence development in the United States.
Wright’s visit to Oak Ridge, one of the original sites of the Manhattan Project, comes after he spent Monday at New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Lab touring its highly secure supercomputing and plutonium facilities. At Oak Ridge, Wright will tour the site’s supercomputer and Y-12, a facility that produces and stores enriched uranium.
GOP Rep. Chuck Fleischmann of Tennessee, the chairman of the Energy and Water Appropriations subcommittee, will be one of several lawmakers hosting Wright.
“Oak Ridge and East Tennessee are at the forefront of developing groundbreaking new technologies such as AI, revitalizing our defense industrial base, and working to deliver on President Trump’s and Secretary Wright’s agenda to unleash American-made energy by expanding new nuclear power and technologies,” Fleischmann told The Daily Wire, adding that such advancements “are essential to our national security, economic prosperity, and powering our nation through the 21st Century.”
Wright’s visit to the Tennessee nuclear site comes as the administration prioritizes AI research and development to outperform U.S. adversaries like China. Wright will meet with OpenAI’s president and co-founder, Greg Brockman, on Friday and take part in a virtual summit described as a “1,000 Scientist AI Jam Session,” according to an Oak Ridge spokesman.
The summit is a “first-of-its-kind event being co-hosted by OpenAI and nine of the U.S. Department of Energy’s national labs to explore how AI can accelerate scientific discovery,” the spokesman told The Daily Wire. “Participants will have access to leading frontier AI models to test research applications, evaluate model responses, and help improve future AI systems. Secretary Wright and Mr. Brockman will give remarks and visit with participating Oak Ridge scientists.”
The participating national labs are Argonne, Berkeley, Brookhaven, Idaho, Livermore, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Pacific Northwest, and Princeton Plasma Physics.
Wright’s visits to Oak Ridge and Los Alamos emphasize the administration’s view of the importance of nuclear power. In an order signed on his first day as Energy Secretary, Wright said that the Trump administration aims to spark an “American nuclear renaissance” and that the United States should lead the “commercialization of affordable and abundant nuclear energy.”
That energy will be needed to power the U.S. development of energy-intensive AI models. In a video of his tour of Los Alamos, the secretary described the AI race as the “next Manhattan Project,” a reference to the U.S. research program that developed the atomic bomb during the Second World War.
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More than 70 years ago, the Manhattan Project brought together the world’s greatest scientists and engineers here in Los Alamos for a patriotic effort that changed the world.
The next Manhattan Project has arrived and with <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> leadership, we will win this critical race. <a href="https://t.co/E40rNzKgJJ">pic.twitter.com/E40rNzKgJJ</a>
&mdash; Secretary Chris Wright (@SecretaryWright) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecretaryWright/status/1894545339899641936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Energy Sec To Visit Tennessee Nuclear Facility, Take Part In AI Summit

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Energy Sec To Visit TN Nuclear Facility, Take Part In AI Summit

Artificial Intelligence

Politics

Trump Administration

Climate is “nowhere near the world’s biggest problem,” and has some benefits worth considering when evaluating its cost, according to Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
Wright appeared on Fox Business on Wednesday and said that the narrative pushed by leftist environmentalists has significant flaws. Wright, who is a longtime critic of radical environmentalism, said that the backlash against fossil fuels inspired by overwrought claims about climate change is unwarranted.
“Everything in life has tradeoffs, but a warmer planet with CO2 is better for growing plants. The world has been getting greener for decades – 14% more greenery around the planet today than there was 40 years ago,” Wright said, before pointing out that “far more people die of the cold than die of the heat.”
“Everything has a tradeoff, but, yeah, there’s pluses to global warming as well as negatives. But the bottom line is it&#8217;s nowhere near the world’s biggest problem today, not even close,” he added.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Secretary Wright joins FOX Business&#039;s Stuart Varney - February 19th, 2025" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GsijyIafpPA?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
President Donald Trump nominated Wright to serve as Secretary of Energy with a background working in the oil and gas and nuclear industries. Wright is in charge of implementing a key plank of Trump’s agenda, a return to American energy dominance through oil and gas production and other energy sources that “can lower the cost of energy, expand job opportunities, and have more stuff made in America,” as Wright said in the interview.
Wright has spoken much more harshly about certain policies crafted on the assumption that climate change is an existential threat. On Monday, the energy secretary spoke via videolink to a conference in London and called the push to get to net zero carbon emissions within the next few decades a “sinister goal.”
&#8220;Net Zero 2050 is a sinister goal. It&#8217;s a terrible goal,&#8221; Wright <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us-energy-secretary-attacks-sinister-net-zero-goals-singling-out-britain-2025-02-17/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;The aggressive pursuit of it – and you&#8217;re sitting in a country that has aggressively pursued this goal – has not delivered any benefits, but it&#8217;s delivered tremendous costs.”

Trump Energy Chief: Climate Change ‘Nowhere Near The World’s Biggest Problem’

Climate Change

President Donald Trump expressed confidence on Tuesday when questioned about the quick purge and reinstatement of largely probationary employees at the agency that oversees the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
Employees were laid off from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) last week before being reinstated over the weekend. Most of those involved were probationary employees, which typically means they were hired or promoted within the last year.
The employees let go from the NNSA were mostly involved in clerical or administrative roles, according to the Department of Energy. Many of those laid off worked on climate and energy efficiency-related projects that do not align with Trump’s agenda for American energy dominance. None of the employees worked directly on weapons-related programs, according to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/17/trump-musk-nuclear-weapons-workers-nnsa/78968238007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">USA Today</a>.
When asked if he was worried about what turbulence over the layoffs would do to the agency, the president said he was “not at all” concerned and that he was delivering on his agenda to voters.
“I think we have to just do what we have to do,” Trump said. “It&#8217;s amazing what&#8217;s been found right now. It&#8217;s amazing. Some, if we feel that, in some cases, they’ll fire people and then they’ll put some people back, not all of them, because a lot of people were let go.”
“Don’t forget, I got elected on the basis of making our government stronger and smaller because we have millions of people that, obviously, they’re paying millions of people that shouldn’t be paid,” he added.
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Reporter: There was a big wave of probationary federal workers who were fired over the weekend. Some of these workers focused on nuclear weapons security were immediately rehired. Do you have any concerns? 
Trump: No, not at all. I think we have to just do what we have to do.… <a href="https://t.co/enXcCxKVlZ">pic.twitter.com/enXcCxKVlZ</a>
&mdash; Acyn (@Acyn) <a href="https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1891967707534553233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
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The agency, which is semi-autonomous under the Department of Energy, sent out termination emails late last week before <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-administration-wants-un-fire-nuclear-safety-workers-cant-figure-rcna192345?taid=67b0cdf1e6d2760001470968&amp;utm_campaign=trueanthem&amp;utm_medium=social" target="_blank" rel="noopener">retracting</a> some over the weekend. Managers had difficulty contacting some of the reinstated employees after cutting off their work email accounts.
The number of employees let go from the agency is unclear. The Department of Energy said the layoffs affected less than 50 people. According to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-energy-department-says-less-than-50-purged-nuclear-security-office-2025-02-16/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reuters</a>, 325 employees received termination emails.
The confusion over the agency’s employees took place amid widespread cuts to federal agencies being led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, an Elon Musk-led group within the White House that is overseeing an audit of federal employment and spending priorities.

Trump ‘Not At All’ Worried About DOGE Cuts After Reinstatement Of Nuclear Safety Workers

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Elon Musk

Executive

Washington D.C.

A Biden administration official who approved a $1.6 billion loan to a company he invested in recently said he does not regret his decision.
Jigar Shah, former President Joe Biden’s head of the Department of Energy&#8217;s Loan Programs Office, recently <a href="https://www.semafor.com/article/02/11/2025/jigar-shah-has-some-concerns-about-energy-investment-under-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Semafor that he wouldn’t change “a single thing” about his actions in office. A reporter for the outlet asked Shah if he would have done anything differently at the Loan Programs Office (LPO) at the Department of Education, and Shah said no.
“Not a single thing,” Shah said. “To take an office that was shut down by the Obama administration after Solyndra and give it hope again, that just takes the amount of time that it takes.”
Just days before President Donald Trump retook office, Shah finalized a $1.6 billion federal loan to a green energy company in which he was invested, The Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/bidens-lame-duck-loan-czar-finalizes-1-6-billion-award-to-green-power-company-he-invested-in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Shah made the $100 million investment in Plug Power, a hydrogen fuel developer, through his green financial firm Generate Capital – just before he joined the Biden administration in 2021. Just one month after Shah joined the administration, Plug Power applied for a federal loan from his office.
Republicans had raised concerns about Shah’s ties to the company, but those concerns went nowhere and Shah joined the Biden administration. Shah’s finalization of a loan to Plug Power came just weeks after the Department of Energy’s own inspector general <a href="https://freebeacon.com/biden-harris-administration/significant-risk-of-fraud-federal-watchdog-calls-for-emergency-halt-to-bidens-400-billion-energy-loan-fund/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a> him to halt all loans from his office due to a “significant risk of fraud&#8221; and conflict-of-interest concerns within the program. Shah ignored the warning and provided billions to green energy companies in the final weeks of the Biden administration, the Free Beacon reported.
During the four years of the Biden administration, the LPO pumped out $400 billion to green energy companies, according to the Free Beacon.
Shah was directly involved in the Plug Power loan process, the Free Beacon found during a public records request, even holding a meeting with the company’s CEO in May 2021. Three days after that meeting, staff in Shah’s office held another meeting focused on Plug Power.
In 2023, Plug Power <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/plug-power-stock-tanks-40-as-company-warns-it-could-run-out-of-money-in-a-year-155101635.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> investors it may run out of money within a year, and Morgan Stanley <a href="https://www.barrons.com/articles/plug-power-stock-price-downgrade-b7f666f2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">downgraded</a> the company’s stock due to “significant risk around PLUG&#8217;s business model.&#8221;
This didn’t stop Shah from handing the company another $1.6 billion in the closing days of the Biden administration.

Jigar Shah

Biden Energy Official Who Gave $1.6 Billion To Company He Invested In Says He Has No Regrets

Biden Administration

The Biden administration has finalized a rule that would ban most natural gas hot water heaters, restrictions that critics say are sure to raise the cost of similar appliances.
The Department of Energy (DOE) published the finalized rule in the Federal Register the day after Christmas, but did not send out a press release or other public announcement as in the case of past regulations, according to <a href="https://freebeacon.com/biden-harris-administration/biden-bans-scores-of-natural-gas-water-heaters-driving-up-prices-with-lame-duck-regulations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Free Beacon</a>.
The rule is scheduled to go into effect in March 2025. It is expected to phase out the production of roughly 40% of new tankless water heaters by 2025, leaving consumers in the United States with fewer options and higher prices. The finalized rule is the latest move the Biden administration has made to restrict household appliances and vehicles in an effort to cut down on emissions.
“The object of these rules is to reduce consumption of natural gas, a goal of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, signed into law when America had to import oil and natural gas. Now, however, America is one of the world’s largest energy producers,” The Heritage Foundation’s Diana Furchtgott-Roth wrote in <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/12/30/obama-took-away-light-bulbs-biden-wants-appliances/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Signal</a>. “The law is outdated and should be repealed.”
Biden has used his executive branch powers to regulate your household appliances because Congress, which answers to the people, refused to pass such restrictive laws,” wrote Furchtgott-Roth, the director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at the conservative think tank.
Matthew Agen, the American Gas Association’s chief counsel for energy, blasted the new rule in a December 18 <a href="https://www.aga.org/news/news-releases/aga-criticizes-doe-natural-gas-instantaneous-water-heater-rulemaking/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>, accusing the Biden administration of violating the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) with the sweeping ban.
“DOE’s decision to ban an entire segment of instantaneous water heaters is deeply concerning and irresponsible,” Agen said. “The final rule is a violation of the [EPCA], which prohibits DOE from promulgating a standard that renders a product with a distinct performance characteristic unavailable.”
Agen also said that the Biden administration’s claims about cost savings for consumers are flawed, and the rule will result in much higher costs, especially to low-income households.
“DOE’s estimate of increased cost to customers is not reflective of real-world situations, with direct pricing information from a manufacturer suggesting that the difference in average product price alone is approximately $450 – 200% greater than the $231 difference claimed by DOE to justify the rule. Moreover, the customers most likely to opt for more affordable non-condensing water heaters tend to be low-income and senior households,” Agen said.

Biden Admin Issues Sweeping Ban On Natural Gas Water Heaters

Joe Biden

President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> announced on Saturday evening that he has tapped Chris Wright to lead the U.S. Department of Energy.
&#8220;I am thrilled to announce that Chris Wright will be joining my Administration as both United States Secretary of Energy, and Member of the newly formed Council of National Energy,&#8221; Trump said in a statement.
Trump highlighted Wright&#8217;s career as a leading technologist and entrepreneur in the industry before being nominated to the position.
&#8220;He has worked in Nuclear, Solar, Geothermal, and Oil and Gas,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Most significantly, Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American Shale Revolution that fueled American Energy Independence, and transformed the Global Energy Markets and Geopolitics.&#8221;
Wright said that he was &#8220;honored and grateful&#8221; for the opportunity to serve in the new administration.
&#8220;My dedication to bettering human lives remains steadfast, with a focus on making American energy more affordable, reliable, and secure. Energy is the lifeblood that makes everything in life possible,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Energy matters. I am looking forward to getting to work.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a>
The statement said that Wright has known and worked with North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum — whom Trump tapped to be the Secretary of the Interior and Chairman of the National Energy Council — for years.
&#8220;This team will drive U.S. Energy Dominance, which will drive down Inflation, win the A.I. arms race with China (and others), and expand American Diplomatic Power to end Wars all across the World,&#8221; Trump said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I am honored and grateful for the opportunity from <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> to serve our country as U.S. Secretary of Energy. My dedication to bettering human lives remains steadfast, with a focus on making American energy more affordable, reliable, and secure. Energy is the lifeblood… <a href="https://t.co/IfjMQw9xKi">pic.twitter.com/IfjMQw9xKi</a>
— Chris Wright (@ChrisAWright_) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisAWright_/status/1857924212868161829?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2024</a></blockquote>

President-Elect Donald Trump Speaks At The America First Policy Institute Gala At Mar-A-Lago

Trump Taps ‘Pioneer’ Chris Wright To Lead Energy Department

Sam <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/sam-brinton" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brinton</a>, the disgraced Biden administration official who was arrested for stealing women’s luggage at multiple U.S. airports, snagged a cushy plea deal last week.
The former Department of Energy employee <a href="https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/crossdressing-luggage-snatcher-and-ex-biden-official-sam-brinton-gets-sweetheart-plea-deal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">will serve</a> no jail time after he pled guilty to misdemeanor petty larceny, downgraded from his felony grand larceny charges that carried a sentence of up to 20 years, the Washington Free Beacon <a href="https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/crossdressing-luggage-snatcher-and-ex-biden-official-sam-brinton-gets-sweetheart-plea-deal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Back in 2022, Brinton, 37, who uses they/them pronouns, was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disgraced-non-binary-biden-official-helped-create-school-policy-to-hide-childrens-gender-changes-from-parents" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fired</a> as deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy and charged with stealing a woman’s Vera Bradley suitcase from the Minneapolis airport and another woman’s suitcase from the Las Vegas airport. The suitcases and their contents had a combined value of more than $9,000, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/former-biden-official-sam-brintons-mug-shot-released-bail-set-15000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">police</a> and court <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-non-binary-nuclear-official-charged-stealing-womans-luggage-airport" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documents</a>.
Then, in May of last year, Brinton was <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/non-binary-ex-biden-official-sam-brinton-arrested-again-fugitive-justice" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a> a third time for stealing a Tanzanian fashion designer&#8217;s luggage with her custom designs, which he proceeded to wear himself at high-profile public events. That theft occurred at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
In all three cases, Brinton has escaped jail time.
The plea deal in the designer clothes case was quietly announced last week by prosecutors in Arlington General District Court.
Brinton is now required to undergo mental health treatment, write a letter of apology, and perform 50 hours of community service helping the elderly, per the terms of his plea deal.
The Tanzanian designer, Asya Khamsin, went public with her allegations against Brinton last year after seeing photographs in news articles of Brinton wearing her custom designer clothes.
“I saw the images. Those were my custom designs, which were lost in that bag in 2018,” she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/police-find-female-designers-stolen-clothes-at-home-of-sam-brinton-non-binary-former-biden-official-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “He wore my clothes, which was stolen.”
She said she had flown to Washington, D.C., for an event where her clothing was set to be on display, but when her designs went missing, she was not able to show them.
At one point, the fashion magazine Vanity Fair <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vanity-fair-published-fashion-feature-on-sam-brinton-showcased-allegedly-stolen-dress?utm_campaign=news&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_content=na_feed_dailywire&amp;cid=news&amp;mid=&amp;xid=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> an article praising Brinton&#8217;s style, including some of Khamsin&#8217;s designs he was wearing.
Khamsin also sued Brinton and reached a settlement this week. In it, Brinton agreed to pay her an unknown amount of money and wrote her an apology letter.
&#8220;Mr. Brinton has apologized to Asya Khamsin, and Asya Khamsin has forgiven Mr. Brinton,&#8221; Khamsin&#8217;s attorney said. &#8220;Asya Khamsin has decided not to publish Mr. Brinton’s letter of apology, as she considers the letter to be quite personal, sensitive, sincere, and heartfelt.&#8221;
A follow-up hearing scheduled for June of next year will examine Brinton&#8217;s progress.
Brinton initially attracted attention for being one of the federal government’s first “non-binary” officials.
Before his stint in the Biden administration, Brinton <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sam-brinton-helped-craft-model-school-policy-keeping-parents-dark-kids-gender-change?intcmp=tw_fnc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">worked</a> for The Trevor Project, where he <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disgraced-non-binary-biden-official-helped-create-school-policy-to-hide-childrens-gender-changes-from-parents" target="_blank" rel="noopener">helped</a> create a model school district <a href="https://www.thetrevorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Model_School_Policy_Booklet.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">policy</a> that says schools should hide suicidal students’ sexual orientation and gender identity from their parents unless the student wants their parents to know. Several states have adopted this policy.

The Trevor Project’s TrevorLIVE LA 2018 – Show & After Party

Sam Brinton, Dress-Wearing Ex-Biden Official Who Stole Women’s Luggage, Gets Cushy Plea Deal

Sam Brinton, Dress-Wearing Ex-Biden Official Who Stole Women's Luggage Gets Cushy Plea Deal

Biden

Crime

Gender

nonbinary

Sam Brinton

A federal judge blocked the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Biden administration</a>’s freeze on new liquid natural gas export permits on Monday after 16 Republican attorneys general sued the administration over the policy.
U.S. District Judge James Cain <a href="https://ago.wv.gov/Documents/LNG%20ruling.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruled</a> that the Biden administration had not followed precedent or considered national security impacts when it announced a ban on new natural gas permits earlier this year, issuing an injunction against the policy. Additionally, he ruled that the freeze would harm the states that sued after the policy was announced in January. 
The freeze meant that the Department of Energy would not issue any new permits while it updated the authorization process. According to the Biden administration, the freeze applied to countries that the United States did not have free trade agreements with, and “indefinitely” paused natural gas exports to those countries. 
“It appears that the DOE has failed to provide a more detailed justification for its halt of the approval process to conduct an update, especially considering that past precedent, which the applicants relied upon, allowed the approval of the applications to proceed when updates were made,” Cain wrote in his decision. 
“Also, it appears to this Court that Defendants did not realistically consider the cost/benefit analysis with regard to Plaintiff States’ concerns about the impact on national security, state revenues, employment opportunities, funding for schools and charities, and pollution allegedly caused by increased reliance on foreign energy sources,” the judge added. 
Cain&#8217;s injunction is in place as litigation against the freeze continues in federal court.
The states that sued were Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Cain said that the states, specifically Texas, West Virginia, and Louisiana, had shown that they would be harmed by the freeze, which would result in “loss of revenues, market share, and deprivation of a procedural right.”
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“This is a big win for the country’s energy industry and the millions of jobs it supports against the attacks from the Biden administration to further its radical climate change agenda at the expense of our economy,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said. “This administration’s Energy Department has no such authority to justify this ban— authority on matters like this lies with Congress and Congress alone.”
The White House disagreed with the judge’s ruling, and the Energy Department said it would assess it.
“We are disappointed in today’s ruling. We remain committed to informing our decisions with the best available economic and environmental analysis, underpinned by sound science,” White House spokesman Angelo Fernández Hernández <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4750745-federal-court-lifts-biden-pause-gas-exports/mlite/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “The United States remains the world’s largest exporter of LNG, and is currently on track to more than double existing capacity by the end of this decade.”

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