Trump's Energy Nominee Says Fixing Blackouts Is His Top Priority

Chris Wright said he hoped to expand the U.S. nuclear sector — and modernize the nation's atomic arsenal.

Chris Wright, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Energy, pledged to make keeping the nation’s lights on his No. 1 priority during his Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

Americans are facing mounting blackouts as an aging grid heaves under the pressures of extreme weather and surging demand — and the problem is set to get worse in the next 10 years.

The number of hours Americans spend cut off from the power grid nearly doubled over the past decade, according to federal data.

Over the next decade, roughly half of North America — Canada’s grid is largely integrated with that of the United States — is at risk of electricity shortages as demand for power grows for the first time in more than 20 years to quench the energy thirst driven by electrification, air conditioning needs and data centers, according to a warning in December from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the quasi-governmental nonprofit that tracks the stability of the continent’s grid reliability.

“We’ve had roughly a 100-year history in the United States of making electricity more affordable on inflation-adjusted terms and our grid more reliable, one of the engineering marvels of modern times,” said Wright, who planned to celebrate his 60th birthday after the hearing. “We’ve seen that trend reverse, and in the last few years, we’ve seen electricity prices go up and the reliability of the grid go down.”