This is a great day for Texas energy diversity [and] the development of these clean technologies …
I just returned late yesterday evening from the G-7 Energy Ministers’ Meeting … You might have read in the media that there was a lot of discussion there about U.S. energy policy and the fact that we are undergoing a review of many of those energy policies. And it would be true — we are — and that, from my perspective, is the right thing to do.
What you might be interested in knowing is that much of the conversation that wasn’t reported on … was related to the energy-security challenges that we face in this world and the need for innovation to assist with meeting the environmental goals and the security needs.
The U.S. is blessed with many neighbors and allies that are aligned with our energy interests, and we are also blessed with this abundance of energy resources to advance our national security and economic interests of our friends and our allies.
President Trump has only been in office for three months, but we are working on rescuing our energy economy from the regulatory mess that we inherited. In a short amount of time, he has taken action to roll back harmful regulations that prioritized a political agenda over the realistic needs of baseload generation. He’s taken action on regulations that distorted the energy marketplace that has left communities across America devastated.
He knows that for us to succeed in growing our economy and improving our environment, we need energy policies that are smart and designed for the innovation era that we live in.
And that was my message to my G-7 colleagues — and it’s important for them to hear that the American people are telling us to promote energy policy that puts America and our allies first. We’re not looking just to trim around the edges either, but to implement a complete overhaul with real solutions that properly value what is important to keep improving our economy.
So it makes me especially grateful to be here today to see how innovative ideas can help achieve exactly those goals, to help us transition into a future that we can all be proud of …
This is the message that we have for the globe: If we will work together — if we will have smart regulations, if we will use our innovation, our brilliance of our universities, of our private sector, working together — there is no challenge that we cannot face and conquer.
This groundbreaking project … is a stunning display of what American and Japanese innovation — working together — can do. We’re investing in cleaner power, using the carbon capture to increase the energy production in [the West Ranch Field]. It’s a tremendous example of how investments in clean technology can also lead to increased development of conventional sources of energy. It shows we don’t have to pit the environment on one side … and the economy on the other side. We can, and we will, be good stewards of both.
Today, we celebrate the fact that the United States and private partners have once again seized the initiative in developing cutting-edge energy technologies, with the aim of unleashing America’s full energy potential in all of its forms. The Trump administration is committed to doing those things.
And doing so will not only strengthen our energy security [and] also our economy, it will also foster a stable, more secure global energy market.
The president has made it very clear to me that he doesn’t just want America to be energy-independent; he wants America to be energy-dominant. And today’s opening is just another step and another example of that becoming a reality.
• Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry was sworn in as the 14th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy on March 2. This is an excerpt of remarks he gave April 13 at the opening of Petra Nova, the world’s largest post-combustion carbon capture project, which is installed on an existing coal-fueled power plant located southwest of Houston. NRG Energy, which conducted the joint venture with JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp., has a videotape of the full remarks at https://www.nrg.com/generation/projects/petra-nova/news/
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