Ahmad Austin Jr.May 13th, 2026, 1:57 pm

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Wednesday argued against the use of solar energy by claiming it “produces zero electricity” when the sun goes down.

Burgum testified before the House Natural Resources Committee to discuss President Donald Trump’s proposed 2027 budget for the Department of the Interior. During this hearing, Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) pointed out how widely used solar energy was and asked Burgum to ensure development in that field continued.

In response, Burgum said:

The Lazard analysis that suggests that this is the cheapest form of energy, all of these projects you’re describing in Nevada have one thing in common: when the sun goes down, they produce zero electricity. And this nation over rotated towards intermittent forms of energy, and the idea that we could add intermittent and shut down base load is what put our grid at deep risk. And the idea that it’s the cheapest– if you want to add intermittent, you have to keep everything else. And so, we have to have a discussion about the total cost of grid, not the cost of the incremental, because it’s true on an incremental basis, you may have an incremental source, but it doesn’t work. The whole machine doesn’t work when the sun goes down, and there’s examples from around the world of this happening.

Before moving on, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) interjected with an unusual request.

“Chairman, I request unanimous consent to enter into the record this amazing new technology that apparently the secretary’s unaware of: it’s a battery.” Huffman said. “China’s figured it out. That’s why they’re cleaning our clock on clean energy, but I want to enter that into the record.”

Watch above via C-SPAN.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!