The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 18 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 2 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Wright: Solar will never reach 10 percent of global energy
“He has a wildly exaggerated view of where solar and batteries will go. And I'd love, if we could make a bet 50 years out, I'll make a bet, solar never gets to 10% of global energy.”
Wright: All US batteries combined store five minutes of grid power
“If you take all the batteries in the United States, you could store five minutes of power.”
Chris Wright: Nuclear is statistically the safest form of energy production
“It's the safest form of energy production we've ever seen, for amount of energy it's produced and the amount of negative impacts, but people think it's the scariest and the most dangerous.”
Wright: Wood burning doubles the energy of wind, solar, and batteries
“The biggest component I didn't mention is traditional biomass. Burning wood. That is twice the total global energy of wind, solar, and batteries combined.”
Wright: Federal government subsidizes wind power at 4 cents per kWh
“The government pays that wind power producer four cents a kilowatt hour in a subsidy to pay it. That's straight from the federal government to the provider of that wind power.”
Chris Wright: IPCC projects only a 0.2% to 4% income drop by 2100
“Their estimates range from 0.2 to maybe three, four percent reduction in per capita income at the end of this century.”
Wright: US will have new small modular reactors by July 2026
“We will have new next generation small modular reactors critical next year. Our goal is by July fourth, and I think we will beat that.”
Wright: Wind, solar, and batteries provided 3% of PJM peak demand
“In PJM where we are right now, at peak demand this year, 97% of electricity, wind, solar, and batteries delivered three percent.”
Wright: Texas wind and solar supplied 8% of power at peak demand
“Wind and solar go on vacation. They're 35% of the capacity in Texas, eight percent of the delivered power at peak demand.”
Chris Wright: Natural gas will be the main source of new US electricity for AI
“Natural gas is what's going to power AI. Let's just be honest. What's going to be the main source of new electricity in the United States by far and away? Natural gas.”
Chris Wright: China has over 20 nuclear reactors under construction
“They're building reactors faster and therefore cheaper, and they've got 20 plus under construction right now.”
Wright: Hydrocarbons provided 85% of global energy in both 1973 and 2024
“Yeah, so, so in 1973, and I use that year because that's the Yom Kippur War. That's when oil prices tripled. Later in the decade, they doubled again in the Iranian Revolution. So we said, we gotta get off oil and gas. So in 1973, oil, gas, and coal provided 85…”
Wright: U.S. retail electricity prices rose 25% under Biden administration
“We saw retail electricity prices rose 25% during the Biden administration. Wholesale electricity prices rose far more than that, over 50%.”
Wright: Small modular reactors will take probably 10 years for market viability
“Ah, probably 10 years. 10 years. Because it's just a learning curve. With the small modular reactors, you gotta build up the supply chain, you gotta build up and build them in volume. The cost can come down dramatically.”
Wright: China built 100 new coal plants last year
“It's by far and away the biggest source of electricity in China, and they built a hundred coal plants last year.”
Wright: Electricity accounts for only 20% of total global energy usage
“Electricity delivers 20% of global energy. Wrap the panel in a, wrap the whole planet in a solar panel, you got 20% of energy delivered.”