Energy Secretary Chris Wright has been at the center of several major energy and policy debates in recent days, touching on tribal sovereignty, hydropower development, and the direction of cutting edge research at the Department of Energy.

Grist and Mother Jones report that Wright is pressing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to roll back its relatively new policy that effectively gives Native American tribes veto power over non federal hydropower projects on their lands. In a recent letter, he argued that requiring tribal consent has created what he called an untenable regime that slows critical infrastructure. According to that reporting, he urged the commission to return to its previous approach and set a fast timeline for a final decision, giving only a short public comment window.

This push is a direct response to recent denials of pumped storage hydropower projects on Navajo Nation lands, including proposals by the company Nature and People First. Those projects promised jobs and new investment, but were rejected after the Navajo Nation and local organizations raised concerns about groundwater withdrawals and the legacy of coal mining and aquifer depletion on Black Mesa. Tribal leaders and environmental groups now warn that reversing the policy would undermine tribal stewardship and could reopen the door to large water intensive projects without genuine tribal support.

At the same time, senior officials at the department are highlighting a different side of the agency’s agenda. Nextgov reports that Energy Undersecretary for Science Dario Gil recently laid out the departments research priorities to House lawmakers, closely aligned with Wrights vision of maintaining United States leadership in emerging technologies. Gil described the new Genesis Mission, championed by the current administration, as a Manhattan Project or Apollo scale effort focused on artificial intelligence, high performance computing, and what he called an American Science Cloud.

According to that testimony, the department is committing hundreds of millions of dollars to build large scale data and computing platforms, with artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and fusion energy as top priorities. The goal is to accelerate discoveries that can support energy security, national defense, and eventually commercial fusion power in the early twenty thirtys.

Together, these developments show an Energy Secretary pushing hard for rapid infrastructure and technology deployment, even as critics warn about the risks to tribal rights and environmental protection.

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