▶ 0:16:47Chair Lee: Good morning, welcome to today's markup to consider two distinguished nominees, doug burgum and christopher a. Wright . Those nominees at the helm, the department of the interior and energy finally have the leadership they need to reverse the damage done by the biden administration and tackle the most pressing issues in the country today.
▶ 0:17:11Chair Lee: Nominees proved they are committed to implementing the trump plan to unleash energy by ending the policies of climate extremism. They are prepared to streamline permitting and rescind regulations that impose needless burdens on energy production and, consequently, the american people, empowering consumer choice, eager to partner with states and local stakeholders to address years of the antiquities
▶ 0:17:44Chair Lee: Act neglect of our national parks and economic disparity caused by extensive federal ownership of land and states that makes funding essential services difficult, sometimes nearly impossible. Governor burgum and Mr. wright are qualified to bring their expertise and vision to their respective roles, qualifications beyond reproach, they deserve the vote of every member of this committee.
▶ 0:18:07Chair Lee: Americans have suffered four years too long and I look forward to promptly approving these nominees.
▶ 0:18:16Sen. Heinrich: This committee heard from two nominees hearings last week. Mr. chris wright for the secretary of energy and governor doug burgum for secretary of the interior. While I certainly do not agree with everything that each of them stands for, they are both well qualified for the positions they are nominated to hold. And they each made important commitments during their appearances before this committee. I am encouraged by the fact that Mr.
▶ 0:18:44Sen. Heinrich: Wright pledged to the committee that he will not rollback spending congress already appropriated for energy projects and he committed to using his authorities as energy secretary to build out new and re-existing transmission lines. Most importantly, he committed to upholding the rule of law. However, I strongly disagree with Mr. wright's claim that climate change does not pose an existential threat to humanity.
▶ 0:19:14Sen. Heinrich: I'm worried by his apparent ease with the alarming effects of climate -- climate change that we already see today and have sadly caused so many to lose their homes and loved ones. I hope that Mr. wright will come to see that climate change is a clear, pressing, an urgent matter, and that energy transition is the key to addressing it. I did appreciate that Mr.
▶ 0:19:36Sen. Heinrich: Wright in response to a question from senator king about climate change said -- we need to be humble, we don't know what is coming in the future. We just crossed the 1.5 degrees celsius threshold that coincides with the raging wildfires in southern california. I agree, the years ahead of us will require humility as much as ingenuity. Mr.
▶ 0:20:02Sen. Heinrich: Wright and I agree that economic prosperity is heavily reliant on access to safe, affordable, reliable, sustainable energy. Fortunately, there are nearly 2.6 terawatts of generation and storage capacity waiting to connect to the grid today.
▶ 0:20:20Sen. Heinrich: Not all of that will be built, of course, but it is a strong and clear signal from generators and developers that they want to connect to the grid and are confident they can make money doing it. We must stay invested in the deployment of advanced energy technologies that we know, as Mr. wright himself said, the only pathway to address climate change.
▶ 0:20:44Sen. Heinrich: Governor burgum similarly committed to work with members of this committee on the land, water, and tribal issues important to our states, promising to meet with local stakeholders and tribal leaders before making or recommending changes to public land protections, committing to continuing the work of settling tribal water claims, building on decades of work to finally bring resolution to difficult disputes.
▶ 0:21:09Sen. Heinrich: We heard him share his love of the outdoors and his shared commitment with teddy roosevelt to protect public lands. However, I was concerned to hear his belief that wind and solar energy represent unreliable energy sources not costs competitive with thermal generation in that battery technology is not ready for commercial deployment. The price of installing battery storage continues to decline. 34% between 2023 and 2020 four.
▶ 0:21:41Sen. Heinrich: Overall the costs of lithium-ion batteries has declined 92% since 2010. Development of battery storage has doubled year-over-year and in my state we are using battery storage extensively to balance the grid and deliver reliable, affordable clean energy. I know this is true in other states represented by senators on this committee and I hope we can work together to lean into innovation in the energy storage space, not pull back from it.
▶ 0:22:10Sen. Heinrich: While I have disagreements with both of these nominees on several important topics, I have found that healthy relationships with the secretary of the interior and energy are critical to securing the best outcomes for new mexico, my home state, and for the country.
▶ 0:22:26Sen. Heinrich: With two doe national labs, 23 tribal nations intensifying the reunification and abundant lands, the work of these departments is the work of new mexico and for that reason and others, I will be supporting both nominees. I wish them the best in their new positions and I look forward to working with them in the best interests of new mexico internation.
▶ 0:22:52Senator Wyden: Thank you for this courtesy. I briefly going to explain why I am forced to vote no on these nominees. In 2022 congress passed the clean energy tax credits. These tax credits were based on ideas formed in this room and of marked up in the senate finance committee. They are the biggest investment in american competitiveness and clean energy in american history .
▶ 0:23:21Senator Wyden: Rolling back this law is unilaterally disarming america in the face of china. Because trump states he wants to beat the chinese while seeming to prefer policies that undermine america's greatest advantages, I cannot support nominees that will carry out these policies. Thank you very much, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:23:45Chair Lee: Thank you, senator wyden. I want to thank senator wyden on cooperating on how to proceed this morning. We have a reporting quorum. I would like to proceed to a vote on three matters. The first is a fairly perfunctory housekeeping rule change reflecting the fact that the size of the committee has increased. I think we can do that without a roll call vote.
▶ 0:24:16Chair Lee: But we have had multiple requests from roll call votes on each of the two nominees. We will vote first on the perfunctory rule update and then we will proceed to governor burgum and then to chris wright. Let's go to the proposal to amend rule six, increase from 10 to 11 the number of committee members to constitute a quorum for the purpose of reporting legislation.
▶ 0:24:43Chair Lee: This, again, is because the committee now has 20 members instead of 19 as we had in the last congress, it needs to be increased to note the forum requirement for purposes of senate rule 26. The clerk sent to your office the text of the simple and required rule change and the citation of the senate rule. So, let's turn to that now. So moved by senator king. I ask for unanimous consent from the committee. Objection?
▶ 0:25:13Chair Lee: Hearing none, rule six b is amended. Let's turn now to the got -- nomination of governor burgum. >> Mr. chairman, I appreciate you all working together. The rumor on the street is minority staff pointed out that the quorum needed to be changed in your favor, see what happens when you are together?
▶ 0:25:34Chair Lee: We are grateful for you doing that. Thank you so much. Anyone who wants to speak on these, there are multiple committees having business meetings this morning starting at 10:00 and we want to have these votes cast before we start to lose a quorum and anyone who wants to stay afterwards will stay as long as you want to make statements. As for the nomination of governor doug burgum, the clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. lee? Rule 6(b) -->> aye.
▶ 0:26:11Chair Lee: >> Mr. rich? Mr. daines? Mr. mccormick? Mr. kotten? Mr. justice? Mr. cassidy? Ms. hyde-smith? Ms. murkowski? Mr. hoeven? Mr.--- Mr. heinrich? Mr. wyden? Ms. cantwell? Ms. hirono? Mr. king? Ms. cortez masto? Mr. hickenlooper?
▶ 0:26:41Chair Lee: Mr. padilla? Mr. gallego? On this boat, the yeas are 18, nays are two, the nomination is agreed to and ordered to be reported. [inaudible]
▶ 0:27:12The Clerk -- Chair Lee: The clerk will call the roll. >> Mr. lee? Mr. barrasso? Mr. risch? Mr. daines? Mr. cotton? Mr. mccormick? Mr. justice? Mr. cassidy? Ms. hyde-smith? Ms. murkowski? Mr. hoeven? Mr. heinrich? Mr. wyden?
▶ 0:27:42The Clerk -- Chair Lee: Ms. cantwell? Ms. hirono? Mr. king? Ms. cortez masto? Mr. hickenlooper? Mr. padilla? Mr. gallego?
▶ 0:28:20The Clerk -- Chair Lee: [whispering] wyden, canto, cortez masto -- no --
▶ 0:28:30Chair Lee: We got some hanging chads. >> on this boat, the ayes are 1 5, nays are 6, the nomination is agreed to.
▶ 0:28:43Chair Lee: Great. On behalf of the committee I'm pleased to extend congratulations to both nominees and, of course, their nominations will be recorded on the floor of the senate. I hope that every senator on this committee will work to persuade leadership on both sides of the aisle to have these nominations across the floor of the senate as soon as possible. >> Mr. chairman?
▶ 0:29:06Chair Lee: Yes? >> question on the account.
▶ 0:29:12Chair Lee: Yeah? Let's get the numbers right. We got some good math whizzes who pointed out there are more votes than senators on the committee. >> Mr. chairman, you had five nos. >> this kind of irregularity -- [laughter]
▶ 0:29:30Chair Lee: I'm off to a bad start. >> Mr. chairman, can I enter statements into the record?
▶ 0:29:37Chair Lee: Without objection. Is it 15-5? >> 15-5.
▶ 0:29:43Chair Lee: Ok, got it. Senator padilla -- I'm sorry, did you [indiscernible] >> thank you so much. I wanted to speak briefly about my vote against Mr. wright for secretary of energy. I voted for the last trump energy secretary nominee and appreciated working with him.
▶ 0:30:06Chair Lee: The first thing he said when he came here was that cybersecurity would be one of his number one priorities and he carried through on that commitment. I understand that Mr. wright has enthusiasm for the doe role in the national laboratories, testifying about hanford in this country, quite a mess, needing to be cleaned up, but his commitment to the tri-party agreement and upholding it was unsatisfactory. This is such a big issue for the state of washington.
▶ 0:30:37Chair Lee: We get roughly $2 billion per year in the national budget for this effort and we have every secretary really pushed by omb to basically try to do cleanup on the shore. I hope that between now and then we might get a stronger commitment on this tri-party agreement, but it is essential for my state to have that commitment to know that an energy secretary is going to fight the efforts by omb to try to duke cleanup on the shore. We need hanford cleaned up. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:31:07Chair Lee: I will enter the rest into the record.
▶ 0:31:10Chair Lee: Thank you so much. All right, we're going to alternate republican democrat based on the order of seeking recognition. Senator murkowski is next, then senator put medea -- padilla.
▶ 0:31:27Senator Murkowski: I'm pleased that we had such a strong boat out of committee regarding governor burgum. I am enthusiastic about what we heard about his vision on energy , viewing energy as an asset versus a liability. I look forward to working with him on that.
▶ 0:31:46Senator Murkowski: In addition to my tenure on this great, great committee, I have also been either the ranking member or now chairman of the interior appropriations committee for some time, so I have had a keen focus on matters related to american indians, alaskan natives, and native hawaiians as a part of that responsibility and I am particularly pleased at what governor burgum brings to the
▶ 0:32:17Senator Murkowski: Table with his relationships with tribes. The fact that tribes in north dakota have all come together in support of his nomination, I think, is actually quite remarkable. Particularly considering the contentious issues they have faced in his state over the years is a great -- willingness to understand and work through the challenges that are native people bring.
▶ 0:32:47Senator Murkowski: Sometimes we think of the secretary of the interior, we think of public lands. On indigenous people, I'm pleased with that, and pleased with the opportunity to work with chris right with scientific approach to energy matters
▶ 0:33:18Senator Murkowski: Articulating I'm looking forward to working with him and I think you both for moving these gentlemen through the committee expeditiously with a decency around comity that we are looking forward to.
▶ 0:33:42Chair Lee: Thank you. Senator padilla?
▶ 0:33:45Sen. Padilla: Thank you, Mr. chairman. I also wanted to comment on the nominations before our committee today. Through our subsequent meetings and phone calls we have discussed specific california
▶ 0:34:15Sen. Padilla: Policies, including water management, public land protections, and energy independence, as well as the importance of proper, emphasize proper tribal consultation. I have been really impressed. Based on the governors experience as a western state governor with his willingness to frankly listen and learn about the issues facing california. I voted to confirm him today.
▶ 0:34:46Sen. Padilla: I do want to make it clear that my vote does not signal my support for some of the early attacks that have been launched by the trump administration against california. On his first day as president for his second term, he issued a memo to the secretary of the interior asking the department to restart the highly damaging work of his first administration to rewrite the rules governing the management of the central
▶ 0:35:17Sen. Padilla: Valley and state water projects. The memo weaponizes and falsely blames the destruction of the wildfires in los angeles on current water rules. Anyone who knows anything about california water knows that the president's conflating of water supply policies with municipal water infrastructure simply makes no sense.
▶ 0:35:41Sen. Padilla: I hope that governor burgum will really dig into the facts, lean on the career scientists and experts at the department and get to know the highly complex interconnected system that is california water.
▶ 0:35:57Sen. Padilla: Because going back to not just the plans, but the, the biological opinions from the prior trump administration will harm our farms and the southern california communities that the president is trying to exploit in order to push his outdated agenda. In the spirit of cooperation, Mr.
▶ 0:36:23Sen. Padilla: Chairman, I would like to submit an article for the record from cal matters that is an objective piece that breaks down the issue.
▶ 0:36:31Chair Lee: Thank you, that will be without objection.
▶ 0:36:36Sen. Padilla: We also spoke about the overwhelming and broad-based public support for our recent national monument designations in california. Not just conservationists, but tribal leaders, local governments, and especially in the case of the kabbalah national monument, the support of electrical utilities and energy developers, something you don't hear very often when it comes to these designation proposals.
▶ 0:37:07Sen. Padilla: And so, I look forward to working with governor burgum to make sure that these protections are enduring and to advance public land policies that look -- work for california, as each state is unique. The day one forum on california from the trump administration was not limited to just water.
▶ 0:37:26Sen. Padilla: He issued a executive order directing the interior secretary to review existing land leases, essentially threatening existing offshore wind -- land leases that in california alone generated $700 million for the federal treasury.
▶ 0:37:46Sen. Padilla: Governor burgum and I were able to discuss the importance of offshore wind to the california grid reliability and our national energy independence. I appreciate the governors at deep knowledge on energy and his commitment to being a thoughtful partner to ensure that california and the nation have a diverse abundance of energy sources, including offshore wind.
▶ 0:38:11Sen. Padilla: Especially when coupled with increasing storage capacity to address intermittency concerns. Now, finally turning to Mr. wright's nomination, I appreciate his commitment to working with me on important california priorities like the hydrogen hub program, the opportunities and the potential in lithium valley, and protecting the tribal energy finance program.
▶ 0:38:39Sen. Padilla: As senator murkowski has a special appreciation for me as an engineer, his perspective based on science in the industry, but as I conveyed to Mr. wright directly and personally, his comments regarding wildfires in the past and his refusal to retract his statements have made it impossible for me to support his nomination.
▶ 0:39:04Sen. Padilla: Given the devastation and suffering in los angeles, with fires still burning, and additional fire erupted yesterday larger than 10,000 acres, I hope that Mr. wright understands that the risk and destruction of wildfires aren't hype.
▶ 0:39:30Chair Lee: Senator hirono?
▶ 0:39:34Senator Hirono: I have serious concerns about the president's directive to drill, baby, drill. The directive for which both Mr. wright and Mr. burgum expressed enthusiastic support. We need leadership in both departments that support our states efforts to transition to renewable energy and I have great concerns over renewable energy in this administration.
▶ 0:40:01Senator Hirono: This week the president declared an energy emergency and issued an executive order pausing wind energy projects. It is clear that this president is not really interested in all types of energy, but is instead very committed and focused on fossil fuels.
▶ 0:40:23Senator Hirono: We know that the burning of fossil fuels leads to climate change, the impact of which hawaii faces on a daily basis and as noted by the ranking member, it is an existential threat to our country and the world. It is for these reasons I cannot support these nominations today.
▶ 0:40:42Senator Hirono: However, I do know that there are areas of common interest that I do share with the nominees, like implementing the compact free zone association and working to support the entrance of alaska natives, native hawaiians, and hawaiian natives. I hope that in the future we can work in areas of common interest good for hawaii in our country. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:41:05Chair Lee: Thank you. Senator hickenlooper?
▶ 0:41:10Senator Hickenlooper: Thank you, I have had the pleasure of getting to know both chris wright and doug burgum over the last many years. I worked with governor burgum and his first four years, my last four, as governor, and we had a lot of opportunities to join efforts and steal each other's best practices as governors. I have known chris wright for more than a dozen years and had some pretty fears arguments over that time.
▶ 0:41:42Senator Hickenlooper: But I can say that both of these candidates are curious, open to discussion, they genuinely listen, and while I think that our disagreements are pretty well set, that ability to work together, to finding common ground, is essential right now in this country and especially around energy. I look at climate change as one of the top challenges that we face.
▶ 0:42:13Senator Hickenlooper: Not just in congress, but as a country, a planet. I have a fierce urgency around addressing it more rapidly than we have been. But attacking, counterattacking, fighting internally won't solve these problems. We've got to spend more time listening to each other, more time looking at things like geothermal or nuclear, where there is great potential.
▶ 0:42:44Senator Hickenlooper: And there isn't any partisanship . At the same time, recognizing that climate change is real and we have these issues facing us right now. We obviously don't have for years to wait to build the electric grid, which everyone on this committee has recognized as essential given ai and the other increasing uses of energy needing a maintenance of reliability. Despite the disagreements I've had with governor burgum and Mr.
▶ 0:43:17Senator Hickenlooper: Wright, I support both of them and I'm going to work as hard as I can with both of them to make sure that we find that common ground and use science to help solve these great challenges we face. Thank you.
▶ 0:43:30Chair Lee: Thank you so much. Senator king?
▶ 0:43:34Senator King: Thank you so much. I supported both nominees. I don't expect to agree with everything any nominee holds, but I think that both of these nominees understand these issues , the issues before us, quite well. I will echo senator hickenlooper 's comments, I look forward to working with both of them. I think they will make a significant contribution. I wanted to make a more general comment.
▶ 0:44:02Senator King: In this committee I have heard the phrase all of the above 100 times. Unfortunately, the last couple of days it appears that all of the above doesn't include wind and solar. Anybody who thinks wind power doesn't produce real electricity , I would advise them to go to a project to put the tongue on the busbar of a wind turbine to see if it's real energy. Of course, it is.
▶ 0:44:29Senator King: The development of those technologies -- which, by the way, wind and solar are the cheapest electrical generation technologies available today, three cents per kilowatt hour is the average across the country. Lower than anything else. It combines natural gas and is close. The intermittency problems we discussed are solvable.
▶ 0:44:53Senator King: They are solvable by natural gas is a potential backup that can be ramped up and ramped down as needed. Salt of course by the incredible development of battery technology. So, all I want to do is reiterate my belief that all of the above includes all of the available technologies, as well as those still in development. Small modular reactors, geothermal.
▶ 0:45:23Senator King: There are tremendous opportunities out there. But to try to say that there is only one source of energy and that it lies beneath the surface of the earth and is not geothermal, that's not accurate, nor does it take cognizant the real effects that both witnesses acknowledge of climate change.
▶ 0:45:46Senator King: We can argue whether it causes a particular disaster or not, but no one can argue that the climate is changing and that it is having an effect. We see it in our forests, in our oceans, the gulf of maine is warming faster than any other body of work -- water on earth with the exception of the arctic ocean.
▶ 0:46:09Senator King: It's ironic, the sudden interest in greenland, resting upon the 75% reduction in arctic ocean ice over the last 40 years. Either climate change is real or it isn't, but it is certainly real in many areas of the country and to argue to the contrary is not realistic.
▶ 0:46:28Senator King: It is a challenge that we have to meet and I hope that we don't take tools out of our toolbox that can contribute to the social -- solution of that problem, as well as sustainable and economically viable energy. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:46:43Chair Lee: Senator heinrich, anything to add?
▶ 0:46:48Sen. Heinrich: Nothing to add. I would just say that I think senator king and senator hickenlooper summed up much of the sentiment on our side of the aisle.
▶ 0:47:00Chair Lee: Thank you to everyone for their cooperation today in forming a quorum and getting these moved forward. We look forward now to moving them to the floor. Unless there is further business, we stand adjourned.