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Secretary Wright Discusses Small Modular Reactors and Appliance Mandate Delays with Maria Bartiromo, Mar. 26, 2025

March 26, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:08:41

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What happened

On Fox Business, Secretary Wright said, as he stated it, that the department released a request for bids and proposals from U.S. developers for small modular reactors, describing the long-talked-about nuclear renaissance as something the administration intends to make happen. He said, as he stated it, that from a previous draft the department stripped out the DEI language, because, as he put it, nuclear energy is about power in homes, businesses, and hospitals, not about politics, skin color, or sex, as he stated it, and he praised, as he stated it, American companies spending private capital on next-generation reactors that are small, factory-manufacturable, quick to assemble on site, and designed to shut themselves down automatically if everything goes wrong, as he stated it.

On natural gas, Wright said, as he stated it, that demand has grown a lot, that gas in oil terms sits at about $22 to $23 a barrel — cheap energy, as he stated it — and that when Russia invaded Ukraine and its supply to Europe was cut off, U.S. LNG filled that hole more than any other source and could have filled more but for the prior administration’s pause on LNG export approvals, as he stated it.

Wright also confirmed, as he stated it, that the department is further postponing implementation of three Biden-era appliance mandates — test procedures for central air conditioners and heat pumps, efficiency standards for walk-in coolers and freezers, and efficiency standards for gas water heaters — saying, as he stated it, that the water heater standard was designed to make popular tankless natural gas water heaters illegal and would have put a newly built factory in the Southeast out of business, as he stated it.

Why it matters

The small modular reactor solicitation shows the administration’s nuclear push taking procurement form, and the same interview records its method on appliance rules — delay first, with the water-heater standard as the chosen example of a mandate it says would outlaw a popular product.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright joins Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo - March 26th, 2025”, 2025-03-26 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-03-26). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.