Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Joining us now to discuss the state of energy, not
Speaker 2: just domestically but worldwide. These seventeenth United States Secretary of Energy,
Speaker 2: Chris Right, Miss the Secretary, welcome back to the program Sir,
Speaker 2: looking forward to an in depth conversation with you about
Speaker 2: what you cover every single day. So, first of all,
Speaker 2: just on a run so we can deal with that.
Speaker 2: What is the current stance of the US officially on
Speaker 2: the use and import of Irunnian crude?
Speaker 1: Oh, the sanctions are still in place. No change there,
Speaker 1: I think the Trump where President Trump was referring to
Speaker 1: there as, Hey, if we make a large piece and
Speaker 1: sanctions come off, irog can flourish.
Speaker 2: If you've got a decent understanding that, mister Secretary of
Speaker 2: just how much of running and cruit is being consumed
Speaker 2: and important already as things stand, despite the sanctions.
Speaker 1: We do so a rare producer is about three and
Speaker 1: a half million barrels a day, and they've been import
Speaker 1: they've been exporting about one and a half million barrel
Speaker 1: of oil a day. And the maximum pressure campaign that
Speaker 1: President Trump did in his last term tamp that down
Speaker 1: to only one hundred or two hundred thousand barls a day,
Speaker 1: they cut off ninety percent of it. That was a
Speaker 1: possible strategy here as well, but hadn't been implemented yet.
Speaker 1: We tried to give negotiations a chance see if we
Speaker 1: can do it without maximum pressure.
Speaker 3: So is maximum pressure still on the table or is
Speaker 3: the ministration walking away from that?
Speaker 1: Well, the goal right now, of course, is to get
Speaker 1: a peace deal, is to get peace into the Middle
Speaker 1: East and spread the focus on commerce, not conflict. So no,
Speaker 1: it's not actively being discussed right now, but the situation
Speaker 1: is still dynamic there. We want to see peace, prosperity
Speaker 1: and security as the future of the Middle East.
Speaker 3: When it comes to what's going on in Iran as well,
Speaker 3: in terms of the IAEA, the Foreign Minister said yesterday
Speaker 3: that basically they have no plans to having the Director
Speaker 3: General Raphael Grossy in Iran and doesn't sound like they're
Speaker 3: willing to give the inspectors the space, time and access
Speaker 3: they need to look at these nuclear facilities. What is
Speaker 3: the United States response to that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, look, this is early on. This is early on.
Speaker 1: Iran has just had most of its nuclear program entirely
Speaker 1: devastated by Israel and the United states. They're a little
Speaker 1: bit humbled, they're a little bit shell shocked right now.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I wouldn't put too much weight on those words.
Speaker 1: But a final peace steal certainly has to have confidence
Speaker 1: in a dismantlement of the Iranian nuclear program and that
Speaker 1: people can have security it won't be resurrected in the future.
Speaker 3: You deal with a lot of nuclear at the Energy
Speaker 3: Department before the US strikes, but after the Israeli strikes,
Speaker 3: Raphael Grossi told us that the IAEA cannot verify with
Speaker 3: the four hundred kilograms of sixty percent enrich uranium in
Speaker 3: Isfahan was currently where it was? Was it still there?
Speaker 3: Do the irradiance take it out? Doesn't the IAEA need
Speaker 3: to go in and verify where this enrich uranium is?
Speaker 1: I think that's quite likely part of a future negotiation,
Speaker 1: in our future deal.
Speaker 2: Miss the Secretary. Of course, this is just one part
Speaker 2: of the convers sanction and energy right now. I can
Speaker 2: tell you earlier on this morning, there's a report that
Speaker 2: you might have scene that came from Rouyts. Essentially, the
Speaker 2: administration is readying a package of executive actions aimed at
Speaker 2: boosting energy supplying to PAWA. The US expansion of ARNTS
Speaker 2: official energy Mister Secretary, what can you share with this
Speaker 2: this morning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Look, artificial intelligence is an incredibly exciting development that's coming.
Speaker 1: It is going to revolutionize not just our economy but
Speaker 1: our health drug discovery, but it also plays a huge
Speaker 1: role in national defense, which is why I've compared it
Speaker 1: to the Manhattan Project. It's critical, It'll be transformative and
Speaker 1: we must lead. We cannot be second place in AI.
Speaker 1: And to do that, we have the scientists, we have
Speaker 1: the capital. You have to have a huge growth in
Speaker 1: US electricity production. So we need to get the morass
Speaker 1: in the way that's really hobbled the American energy system
Speaker 1: for the last four years, and we got to unleash
Speaker 1: American investment in American capitalism. That's going to take building
Speaker 1: a lot of new generation.
Speaker 4: Mister Secretary, to build on that idea. What type of
Speaker 4: energy production are you looking at? I know that New
Speaker 4: York State was just looking at potentially creating a new
Speaker 4: nuclear energy plan. Is that one of the paths of
Speaker 4: travel that you think is going to be pivotal for
Speaker 4: the United States?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, look to have a secure power glid into power AI.
Speaker 1: You need ninety nine point nine percent of the time
Speaker 1: on power, and so that today our biggest source of
Speaker 1: reliable power today by far as natural gas. Our second
Speaker 1: biggest source is nuclear, and our third biggest source right
Speaker 1: behind that is coal. So those are the three keys
Speaker 1: to the future of our electricity grid. Nuclear we haven't
Speaker 1: built much for a while, so I was thrilled to
Speaker 1: see the governor's announcement embracing nuclear in New York. We
Speaker 1: have the governors of Tennessee and Georgia and Virginia passionate
Speaker 1: about getting new nuclear built in their states. So yes,
Speaker 1: one of our goals in this administration is is to
Speaker 1: launch the American nuclear renaissance.
Speaker 4: Mister Secretary, how do you encourage this type of investment
Speaker 4: at a time where the goal of the President has
Speaker 4: also been to lower prices? And we've seen this particularly
Speaker 4: in the energy space, for the President has been very
Speaker 4: vocal about the desire to see energy prices lower, and
Speaker 4: this has led to a number of oil rigs in
Speaker 4: the Shelle patch to be taken offline because it isn't
Speaker 4: profitable for a lot of these companies to be producing
Speaker 4: as much as they used to. How do you sort
Speaker 4: of square that circle?
Speaker 1: Yes, Yeah, prices are supply and demand. Prices are supply
Speaker 1: and demand. But what we're doing in the administration is
Speaker 1: everything possible to lower the cost of produce energy in
Speaker 1: the United States. Cheaper to produce a barrel of oil
Speaker 1: or an MCF and natural gas, you know, or a
Speaker 1: ton of coal or a kilowater hour of electricity from
Speaker 1: nuclear plants. So that's deregulatory, that's common sense regulation focused
Speaker 1: on health and safety and the environment, but not the
Speaker 1: nonsense that just burdens burdens energy producers. Nuclear will be
Speaker 1: a little bit more expensive at the start, but I
Speaker 1: think think that cost will be borne by hyperscalers. They
Speaker 1: want to see nuclear rearrives and they'll sign higher power
Speaker 1: purchase agreements to help kickstart nuclear. We need to grow
Speaker 1: the energy supply and keep costs down. You're right, that's
Speaker 1: a challenge. You're right to bring that issue up, and
Speaker 1: that's what I work on seven days a week.
Speaker 2: Let's get at the regulatory burden. We're lucky to have
Speaker 2: someone in your seat that's actually ran an energy company
Speaker 2: in this country. As you know, permitting it's really difficult
Speaker 2: across many dimensions. You have to go state by state,
Speaker 2: and the things you can do at the executive level
Speaker 2: to make this a lot easier. Could you describe those
Speaker 2: kind of things?
Speaker 1: There are a number of things, and it is why
Speaker 1: we created the National Energy Dominance Council. That's really to
Speaker 1: bring people leaders from all different agencies that impact the
Speaker 1: ability to build things in our country together and say what.
Speaker 1: We talk to producers and say, you know, why aren't
Speaker 1: you building that? And they'll give us a list of
Speaker 1: seven things. It'll take us seven years, and we're really
Speaker 1: worried about this one and that one. So we dive
Speaker 1: into those issues and say how can we simplify that?
Speaker 1: But I'll highlight a Supreme Court decision from just a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago on to get more oil out of
Speaker 1: Utah via train that had been held up for years
Speaker 1: through suits over NEPA, and the Supreme Court ruled eight
Speaker 1: to zero. Every Supreme Court justice involved in the case said, yes,
Speaker 1: we need to put NEPA back in its box. It's
Speaker 1: to check to make sure the environment's being considered. It's
Speaker 1: not to have years long, endless delays because if you
Speaker 1: delay something, you make it more uncertain, more expensive, and
Speaker 1: simply less things get built.
Speaker 2: Mister Secretary, I appreciate your time as always to break
Speaker 2: down the situation. Hopefully we can engage you on this
Speaker 2: conversation again. Chris Ryanthand, the Energy Secretary of the United States,