During a Senate Energy Committee hearing last week, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) questioned Tristan Abbey, nominee to be Administrator of the Energy Information Administration, about the critical materials landscape.
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00:00Ms. Mastow, Ms. Byron, let's start with you. We've got about 700 miles of our southern border
00:07that consists of federal land. And on a number of occasions, over and over and over again,
00:14over many years, federal land managers have blocked access or delayed access to customs
00:21and border protection to that land. They want to keep them out of that land in the name of
00:27environmental protection. But meanwhile, illegal border crossings themselves have
00:32themselves caused massive environmental degradation, including leaving trash piles,
00:38damaged ecosystems, wildfires, and other problems. If confirmed, how will you prioritize
00:44preventing environmental damage that may be caused by illegal immigration?
00:48I believe that the local stakeholders know best what is going on on those public lands. And I would
01:00instruct the BLM to work collaboratively with people on the ground to ensure that we're using,
01:05making the best use of the land.
01:09It's certainly not an environmentally neutral thing to allow the border to be open. And so
01:14that certainly has to be taken into account. Dr. Travnik, a federal decision last year requires the
01:23bypass of hydropower generation at Glen Canyon Dam to control the smallmouth bass, a species that
01:32itself threatens the ESA-listed humpback chub. Now, restricting hydropower generation does a lot of
01:40things, including forcing customers to purchase more expensive replacement power. This is also depleting the
01:49basin fund, which supports critical infrastructure along the Colorado River that the Colorado River
01:56basin states need and rely on. If confirmed, how will you balance ESA compliance on the one hand with the
02:02need to protect affordable hydropower and benefit American families and otherwise address the needs of
02:10the Colorado River basin states?
02:12Dr. Thank you, Senator Lee, and I really appreciate the conversation yesterday as well.
02:17We know as we're looking at the Colorado River and we're looking at how those dams are operated and the
02:22energy that goes with it, that we are going to have to have some of that balance. There was that decision
02:26that was completed last year, right, that does lean in a little bit more on looking at that reducing and
02:33impacting the hydropower energy. So if confirmed, committed to looking into it and trying to figure out how we can
02:39still rely on that lower cost of energy.
02:42Dr. Much appreciated. Thank you. Mr. Abbey, in 2021, Congress directed EIA to produce a critical minerals
02:50outlook and to deepen its capabilities in international analysis. It's now 2025 and we haven't seen the report.
02:58You've confirmed how, how do you view the international critical materials landscape and what would you do as the administrator of EIA to ensure that we have the best information available to strengthen our supply chains?
03:15Thank you very much, Chairman Lee, for that question. There are two great Americans in the audience who I did not mention in my opening statement, my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, Pat and Rick Bruno, who can attest to the fact that,
03:27although I am extremely interested in the critical minerals issue, I am not presently employed at the,
03:32at, at, at DOE. I am blissfully living a life in Tampa at the moment.
03:36I think the, the, the, the issue that you raise is absolutely important.
03:40Washington's a lot like Tampa, so you, you won't notice a difference.
03:42I think the, the, the issue that, that you raise, Senator, is absolutely important. One, one of the first things I would do, if confirmed,
03:50is meet with the team to understand what steps, if any, have been taken to adhere to the statutory guidance from Congress to establish that outlook.
04:01As you mentioned, it was, it was directed in 2021 and does not exist today. If confirmed, it would exist.
04:07Thank you. Mr. Garish, I, I loved seeing the, uh, uh, reference earlier to the other Senator Makowski, uh, talking to the,
04:18well, not the other Theodore Garish, but the same one, uh, just in a different era.
04:22Our, our, our country is facing a looming energy crisis, uh, due to the growth of energy intensive industries,
04:29and in many cases, the retirement of dispatchable and firm generation resources. In response, many states,
04:36including my own state of Utah, are taking steps to significantly increase their production.
04:43The state of Utah, through Operation Gigawatt, is working to double its energy capacity over the next 10 years,
04:50an ambitious, uh, but I believe, uh, achievable ambition. It's leading the way in making it easier
04:56to build new nuclear energy as part of that same effort. As energy demand, uh, continues to grow,
05:04we need to increase our supply with reliable, affordable, clean, baseload generation, like nuclear.
05:13If confirmed, what will you do in your role as Assistant Secretary, uh, over the Office of Nuclear Energy to
05:18make sure that we get, um, continued cooperation, um, uh, rather that we get continued operation of
05:26the existing nuclear fleet and make sure that we get new nuclear plants up, running, and online as soon as possible?
05:36Senator, uh, nuclear definitely has a role in the future and will play an important part. And what I
05:43believe that we have to do, uh, initially is get a plant licensed and operating here as soon as possible.
05:50There's a number of programs that the department currently has underway, the advanced nuclear
05:55project, and that's advanced
06:00nuclear reactor program that, uh, will, is really, uh, to facilitate first movers to get the advanced
06:09reactors into the marketplace. Similarly, uh, there's, uh, there are programs right now at,
06:15at Idaho National Laboratory where we can begin the testing of prototypes, full-size prototypes to begin
06:22to, uh, have new reactors available into the market. The key is we need to build one, we need to license one,
06:30and we need to do it in an economic way. And that process is going to take a little time,
06:37but we need to get started with it immediately. And that's an important aspect of sort of my plans,
06:43if confirmed, that would, that I would really, uh, intend to, uh, begin with.
06:47Now, I realize the office you've been nominated to fill plays a different role, but are, are there, um,
06:55are there benefits that could be derived, uh, from a collaboration between your office
06:59and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to accelerate the process?
07:02Uh, absolutely. And I think one of the very interesting ideas that has been suggested is
07:09a very close collaboration with the, our office as they begin to test the new reactors
07:17and look, and work with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on ways in which licensing could be
07:23enhanced and we could do research that is directly related to the, uh, of the information needed to
07:30accelerate the license process. Excellent. Thank you very much. Senator Padilla, you're up next.
07:37Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh,