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Doug Burgum

Wind turbines.
Sparks

Trump Tries to Kill New York’s Empire Wind Project

For the first time, his administration targets an offshore wind project already under construction.

Spotlight

Anti-Wind Activists Have a Big Ask for the Big Man

The Trump administration is now being lobbied to nix offshore wind projects already under construction.

Politics

The Era of Trump’s Energy Czars Has Begun

Chris Wright and Doug Burgum started their reign this week by amplifying the president and beating back Biden-era policies.

Policy Watch

Washington Goes Wild, Wyoming Pipelines Win

And more of the week’s top policy news around renewable energy.

Russ Vought Makes a Power Play for Trump’s Energy Policy

Russ Vought Makes a Power Play for Trump’s Energy Policy

The president’s early executive orders give the once-and-future head of the Office of Management and Budget far-reaching powers.

Climate

Inside the Mind of Energy Nominee Chris Wright

His intellectual influences include longtime climate action skeptics — and Bill Gates’ favorite author.

Chris Wright.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images</p>

Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, is a nerd — and he’ll tell you about it. “I’m Chris Wright, and my short bio is, I started out as a science geek, I transitioned to a tech nerd, and then I’ve been an energy entrepreneur my whole life,” he told energy journalist Robert Bryce on the Power Hungry podcast in 2020. “In addition to an energy nerd, I’ve been a climate nerd for quite some time,” he said in a talk hosted by Veriten, the energy consulting firm in 2023.

This is a far cry from Trump’s first Energy Secretary, the former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who famously failed to remember on the Republican primary debate stage the third of the three agencies he sought to eliminate (it was the Department of Energy) and who reportedly didn’t know that the Energy Department’s responsibilities — and budget — then lay heavily with maintaining the country’s nuclear stockpile.

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Podcast

An Exit Interview With Energy Secretary Granholm

Rob sits down in New York with the outgoing head of America’s energy apparatus.

Jennifer Granholm.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images</p>

Jennifer Granholm has long been one of the most interesting figures in the Democratic Party. A former federal prosecutor, she was the governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2011, leading the state during the Great Recession and subsequent auto bailout. Since 2021, she has been the 16th U.S. Secretary of Energy. While there, she has overseen the department’s transformation from an R&D-focused agency to an aspiring engine of industrial strategy.

On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob sits down with Secretary Granholm in person in New York to conduct an exit interview, of sorts. What climate policies is she most proud of — and what does she hope Democrats do better next time? What does she wish that Democrats understood about fossil fuels? And what does she think the outlook for clean energy is in the years to come?

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