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Wright Tells Varney & Co. a Nuclear Executive Order Is Coming Today and the Big Beautiful Bill Ends Wind and Solar Subsidies

May 23, 2025 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:05:57

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What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined Fox Business’ Varney & Co. and confirmed that President Trump was expected to sign an executive order to jumpstart nuclear energy that same afternoon, in the interview the Department of Energy uploaded. Wright said the administration is all in on nuclear — the second-biggest source of U.S. electricity after natural gas — and is working to remove regulatory barriers and free up lands at the Energy Department and the Defense Department for developers, with private capital ready to go, as he described the effort. He said permitting would include separate authority on Energy Department lands, with developers able to test reactors at sites such as Idaho National Laboratory within a year or two, and dialogue underway with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as he outlined the process.

Wright also previewed a June 2 meeting in Alaska with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Asian energy representatives, centered on the Alaska LNG pipeline project to sell liquefied natural gas to Asian countries. He said Asian countries’ biggest role would be long-term offtake purchases, with some likely investment in the project itself, and he criticized the previous administration for, in his words, sanctioning Alaska more than it sanctioned Iran, as he characterized prior policy.

Asked whether the big beautiful bill kills the Green New Deal, Wright said it ends wind subsidies he dated at over 30 years old and solar subsidies at over 20 years old, arguing the spending bought only more expensive electricity; he confirmed, in his telling, that rescinding the scheduled subsidy money requires an act of Congress and that the provision was in the House bill passed about 24 hours earlier, as he stated the legislative position.

Why it matters

The Varney appearance is a same-day prediction with a paper trail — a nuclear executive order promised for that afternoon — bundled with the Alaska LNG summit preview and the administration’s case for ending production subsidies in the reconciliation bill.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: Wright’s May 23, 2025 statement that the President would sign a nuclear energy executive order that afternoon, and that the House-passed bill would end wind and solar subsidies — checkable against the May 23, 2025 executive orders and the enacted legislation, flagged for the scoreboard editor; no verdict is entered here.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Fox Business’ Varney & Co. - May 23, 2025”, 2025-05-23 (official upload, embedded above; published 2025-05-23). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.