Alex Fitzsimmons on the DOE's 'Energy Dominance' Agenda

**Alex Fitzsimmons** (0:04)
American energy dominance is about building the most affordable, reliable and secure energy system possible. And if you look at policies of the previous administration, we're focusing on replacing that energy subtraction agenda with an agenda focused on energy addition, but especially sources of energy that contribute the most to peak demand.

**Jason Bordoff** (0:25)
Under the second Trump administration, the Department of Energy has undergone significant reorganization and shifts in its funding priorities. Many of these shifts are part of the administration's energy dominance agenda. But one significant point of continuity with the Biden years is a continued emphasis on energy security. Energy security, of course, means different things today than it did even a decade ago. It's about competing in the global race for artificial intelligence, reshoring manufacturing supply chains, and keeping the lights on as extreme weather events become more frequent and more destructive. But the administration's efforts to bolster energy security and availability at a time of surging load growth has included emergency orders to keep coal-fired power plants operating, for example. It's pulled back funding for new energy transmission projects that it says will not quickly lower energy costs for American consumers. So when it comes to the administration's energy dominance agenda, what are the tradeoffs between security and speed? What does the administration's waning support for renewables and low-carbon industries mean for American clean energy innovation in the coming decades? And how will the US build out new power capacity, including advanced nuclear, quickly and safely? This is Columbia Energy Exchange, a weekly podcast from the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. I'm Jason Bordoff.
Today on the show, Alex Fitzsimmons. Alex is the Acting Under Secretary of the US Department of Energy. He also directs the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response, known as CSER, which protects energy infrastructure against cyber and physical threats. Before this, Alex was Chief of Staff for Energy Secretary Chris Wright. He also worked in the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy during President Trump's first term, after which he served as a Senior Director at ClearPath and then as Head of Government Affairs at SILA Nanotechnologies. Alex joined me to talk about protecting the nation's energy infrastructure and the evolving threats that the CSER office confronts every day. We discussed grid resilience and how the Energy Department is adding energy capacity at a time of surging load growth. Alex shared what the administration means when it talks about American energy dominance. And we talked about efforts to grow more energy infrastructure, including nuclear, more quickly, and meet rising power demand. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Alex Fitzsimmons, welcome to Columbia Energy Exchange. Great to see you again and have you on for the first time in the many, many important roles and hats that you're wearing at the Energy Department. Good to see you.

**Alex Fitzsimmons** (3:10)
Of course. Thanks, Jason. It's great to be with you.

**Jason Bordoff** (3:13)
In terms of what I was just referencing, you kind of have at least two quite important jobs overseeing a major part of the department. Maybe I'll start with the more focused and narrow, but quite important role, which is the head of CSER.
Let's talk about that a little bit and then come to some of the broader issues that as in the undersecretary role, you are surely paying attention to. Just for people listening, explain what that CSER office is, what its scope and focus is, and then have a couple of questions for you about it.

**Alex Fitzsimmons** (3:43)
Yeah, I'd be happy to. CSER is an office that was created during the first Trump administration, and its mission is quite simple. It is to strengthen the security and resilience of the energy sector. And CSER is an office that one of the only offices within the entire federal government that is solely dedicated to strengthening security and resilience across the entire energy sector. So everything from oil, natural gas, to the grid, all the subsectors involved in the broader energy system. And so, it's a relatively new office, but it has an incredibly important mission, one that's only growing in importance as we understand an evolving threat landscape from nation state threat actors that wish to do us harm as we are dealing with an energy system that has to accommodate much larger load growth, and is building a lot of new generation transmission. All of these components and sub components are integrated together in a system that's becoming increasingly complex, facing a threat landscape that is increasingly complex. So our fundamental responsibility within the Caesar Office is to provide timely and actionable information to the energy sector. That is then used to inform the development of world class cyber and physical R&D. That information and that R&D is then used to secure and harden US critical energy infrastructure.