HYDE-SMITH CITES NEED FOR MORE OFFSHORE, NUCLEAR POWER WITH KEY TRUMP NOMINEES
Nominees for Interior & Energy Departments Could Influence Mississippi’s Energy Outlook as State Grows
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today received commitments from two top Trump administration nominees to work on increasing energy production in the Gulf of America and expanding the use of nuclear energy to meet growing power demands.
Hyde-Smith serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which conducted a confirmation hearing for the nominations of Katharine MacGregor to be Deputy Secretary of the Interior and James Danly to be Deputy Secretary of Energy. When confirmed, both would hold the #2 positions at the U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Department of Energy, respectively.
“Both of these nominees are a refreshing change from the previous administration. They both expressed strong commitments to moving the United States to greater energy and national security through more productions and less red tape,” Hyde-Smith said following the hearing. “I look forward to the Senate confirming Katharine MacGregor and James Danly so they can get to work implementing President Trump’s agenda.”
Hyde-Smith asked MacGregor whether she would use her role at the Interior Department to support the mandated lease sales outlined in the Offshore Energy Security Act of 2025, a bill she cosponsored to mandate two offshore oil and gas leases per year for the next 10 years.
“Revenue from lease sales support our states and fund mandatory programs, such as the Land Water and Conservation Fund. Mandatory lease sales in the Gulf would further boost this revenue,” Hyde-Smith said. “Do you consider continued offshore oil and gas development vital to our nation’s security and economy, and will you support our efforts to mandate lease sales, especially if the Department works on a new Five-Year Leasing Plan?”
“Absolutely, I can commit to you working on that legislation. I know that the Gulf of America has been one of the biggest energy-production provinces in our country for decades. And innovations that come out of that offshore province have been exported throughout the world,” MacGregor said. “I would like to see that province produce long into the future. As the statute requires, we need to make those resources available for national need, and I think the American people would like to see their prices come down in energy.
Establishing greater certainty for offshore oil and gas lease sales would be a departure from Biden administration, which held the fewest lease sales in the Gulf of America of any previous Administration with only two sales.
Hyde-Smith questioned Danly on the role small modular nuclear reactors can have in ensuring the nation has a sufficient energy supply and resilient grid to meet escalating demands for energy, particularly in states like Mississippi with growing manufacturing and industrial sectors.
“Reliable, affordable energy and a resilient grid is critical for continued economic growth, especially as companies make investment and expansion decisions based on access to inexpensive, reliable energy. As demand grows, so does the need for more baseload power. I believe nuclear energy continues to be at the forefront of the conversation providing more safe, clean, reliable power to meeting growing demands,” Hyde-Smith said. “What steps do you see the Department of Energy taking to advance nuclear including new technologies, such as small modular nuclear reactors?”
Danly testified that nuclear power be expanded to meet future U.S. energy demand and stressed the importance of work by the DOE national laboratories to continue developing, proving, and demonstrating advances in small modular reactors to expand nuclear power generation.
“There are any number of regulatory and commercial hurdles to commercialization of nuclear, all of which I would to see either overcome or changed. I don’t see a way that we can meet the demand that we’re facing without having nuclear power as part of the solution,” Danly said. “If we increase our installed load at the rate I think we’re going to have to build more nuclear to cover that baseload generation, and so the Department of Energy is going to be key to that.”
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