Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (ENR), was encouraged by Chris Wright’s testimony Wednesday during an ENR hearing. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Energy (DOE) appeared before the committee, and Senator Murkowski engaged with Mr. Wright about his strong qualifications to lead the department, and his intentions to further expand the Arctic Energy Office to better serve states like Alaska.

“To have somebody who understands energy from the scientific, entrepreneurial, economic, and security perspectives is truly, extraordinarily unique,” said Senator Murkowski. “I am really excited about the potential that Mr. Wright will bring to the energy discussion in this country.”

The full transcript of Murkowski’s first round of comments and questions is below.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Murkowski: Your testimony this morning, Mr. Wright, is so encouraging. I love the fact that you are a self-described energy geek. I love the fact that our colleague, Senator Hickenlooper, in his introduction, calls you a scientist who’s invested his life around energy. To have somebody before the committee who understands energy from the scientific perspective, from the entrepreneurial perspective, from the economics perspective, to the security perspective, is truly extraordinarily unique.

And so, the fact that you have been nominated to this position, and you have agreed to go through this process, thank you for that. You bring to the table, I think, just the type of enthusiasm and, quite honestly, the ability to communicate why energy is so key. In our office, we talk about the fact that we have those who view energy, somehow, as a liability. We view it as an asset. We agree on that. But your focus on affordability and abundance is so important to understand.

So, there’s been a lot of passion that you’ve heard in the back of the room today, and you’ve had your back to it, but your ears and I think your heart is attuned to it, because there is so much emotion that is attached to what we’re seeing with the changes in our climate today. And we can argue about the percentages, or how much is human caused, but we are seeing that undeniably there is change. You are not denying that. You have said before this committee, and in other places, that climate change is real. Is that correct?

Wright: Absolutely, Senator.

Murkowski: And I heard you say this morning that the solution to climate change is how we evolve our energy system. Is that a correct summation?

Wright: Absolutely, Senator.

Murkowski: So, it’s about technology. We’re acknowledging it, we’re dealing with it, we’re living it, we’re feeling it. We’re feeling it in Alaska right now. I wish that I could tell you it was as cold in Alaska right now, as it is in Washington, DC this morning, but we’re seeing changes that are detrimental to our system. Our thermostat is out of whack, and we want to have the Arctic temperatures up north, but one of the ways that we know we’re going to get there is through our technologies that will help us adapt, mitigate, and to really help prevent.

So, I want to direct a couple of my comments this morning more to the parochial side. We’re talking about Arctic. We don’t necessarily have the national labs, although we do have a great partnership with NREL with our Cold Climate Housing Center. We’re very, very proud about that. But where do the Arctic Energy Office, the Office of Indian Energy (Policy and Programs) and NREL’s Alaska campus fit into your thinking when you’re thinking about not only the technologies, but how you can how you can use a place like Alaska as a proving ground for so many of these technologies where our energy costs are higher than just about any other place in the United States of America, and arguably in parts of the world?

Wright: Senator, thanks for the question, and thanks for the fabulous dialogue we had in your office that was so broad-ranging. And as I think we discussed there, I view Alaska as a microcosm for the world. Now it’s hard to call Alaska micro, but here you are, a state with just enormous energy resources set right next door to remote communities with very little energy access, and the energy access they do have is expensive.

You know, this is the combination of resources, lack of infrastructure, different settings needing different energy sources. I have worked for years in this area, and in fact, sitting behind me is the gal who runs our Bettering Human Life Foundation trying to bring energy access to remote villages in Africa… This is the global problem. How do we get different energy solutions for different communities, at different stages of economic development, different lifestyles, different cultures? And my vision, if I get the honor to be confirmed, maybe is to expand on that Arctic Energy Office. This is an energy office for remote communities, for different communities. There’s different technologies and different answers there than for industrial energy for manufacturing steel, not going to do that in a small Alaskan village.

Murkowski: It’s appreciating the diversity of where we all are, as well as the diversity of resources.

I want to ask one quick question, even though I’m at the edge of my time here, because nobody has really spoken to critical minerals this morning, and I view this as the next looming security vulnerability. If we want to move out with these energy technologies, regardless of where they are, we’re going to need these minerals, and we recognize that, and I think we recognize that we are stronger when we are developing more of that here at home.

I shared with you in our meeting in December how frustrated I was with the Department of Energy over its repeated subsidization of a graphite processing plant that was getting its supply of graphite from Mozambique. We have a natural graphite deposit up in Alaska, outside of Nome. The same day that we met, the company behind that project that was importing graphite from Mozambique was forced to declare force majeure. Why? Because of the violent unrest in Mozambique. And so now we’ve got millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars that are at risk.

It’s something that I hope you will look at very critically in terms of what we are doing to ensure that we are responsibly accessing our resources here, particularly in the critical minerals vein, but making sure that we are not we’re not embarking on exercises that are going to result in a loss of taxpayer dollars without any net benefit to the people here in this country.

I’m over my time but I am really excited about the potential that you will bring to the energy discussion in this country. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

  enr, hearing, senate, wright