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Wright Announces a $1.6 Billion Loan Commitment with DTE Gas in Michigan, Jun. 15, 2026

June 15, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:17:11

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What happened

Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined a press conference in Michigan with Representative Tom Barrett and Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, in the Department of Energy’s upload of the June 15, 2026 event. Barrett said energy costs in Michigan are among the highest in the Midwest and above the national average; Hall credited the administration with keeping a Michigan coal plant open through a recent blackout risk and with a new nuclear plant opening in the state, as he stated them.

Wright said the department’s Energy Dominance Financing office — its mandate changed by last year’s legislation, as he described it — looks for partners to co-invest in projects that lower energy prices and strengthen local economies. “We are announcing a $1.6 billion loan commitment to partner with DTE Gas,” Wright said, noting that natural gas heats 75 percent of Michigan homes and is the largest home heating fuel in the country, as he stated it. DTE Gas President Bob Richard said the company had spent most of its meeting with the secretary talking about affordability.

Why it matters

The DTE commitment is the loan office’s new mandate in action — federal credit partnered with a regulated gas utility, sold on household heating bills in a high-cost state rather than on a marquee technology.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: the $1.6 billion Energy Department loan commitment with DTE Gas as announced June 15, 2026 — a commitment announced at the event, with closing and build-out still ahead. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Press Conference, Announces Loan to Lower Energy Costs” (official upload, embedded above; remarks as delivered by Secretary Wright, Representative Barrett, Speaker Hall, and Bob Richard).