Here’s how it could shape U.S. policy
Gregory Beard, Director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Presence Financing.
Courtesy: U.S. Department of Energy
Former Apollo Executive and longtime New Yorker Gregory Beard says he wouldn’t leave the private sector for any job. But opportunity came knocking for Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who tapped Beard to run the Office of Energy Sovereignty Financing.
EDF, formerly known as the Office of Credit Programs and part of the Department of Energy, is currently the world’s largest energy lender, with approximately $289 billion in credit authority.
Beard first joined EDF as a senior advisor from bitcoin miner Stronghold Digital Mining in April 2025 and officially took over as director on January 29.
“If I wasn’t passionate about Secretary Wright’s message and why the president chose him, I would still be in the private sector,” Beard said in an exclusive interview with CNBC.
Beard has only been at the helm for a few weeks, but he has big plans for the agency, including deploying record capital. At a time when there is a generational shift in the energy complex and natural resources increasingly drive geopolitics, EDF can be an important tool in shaping the future of energy in the United States.
shaking the office
Beard said the first order of business is to re-examine loans made during the Biden administration, with the majority of them approved in the months between Election Day 2024 and the inauguration. The outcome of what he called his “turnaround job” affected more than 80% of the Biden-era portfolio, or about $83.6 billion worth of loans. According to the Ministry of Energy. Most focused on emissions-reducing projects.
Beard said the review process includes ensuring that the remaining projects in the portfolio are consistent with the Trump administration’s energy goals. In total, approximately $30 billion in conditional loan commitments were either canceled or withdrawn by applicants; Approximately 53 billion dollars of loans were restructured. DOE said.
Beard said the goal is to protect taxpayers and focus on affordability and reliability. “This is not a reversal of policies, but protection of the dollar,” he said.
Solar panels at the Boulder Solar 1 facility in Boulder City, Nevada, November 23, 2025.
Daniel Cole | Reuters
EDF dates back The agency has served as a bridge of sorts for U.S. companies that have difficulty raising financing through traditional capital markets due to perceived risks. In theory, the rigorous process of securing an EDF loan could be seen as the government’s stamp of approval, providing additional financing to help fledgling companies and technologies get off the ground. There have been hits over 20 years, including a loan issued in 2010. Tesla’s – and most importantly, he missed supporting solar manufacturer Solyndra, which eventually went bankrupt.
Under President Joe Biden and his climate-focused administration, the agency has become overpowered and acted as a kind of green bank. Staff quadrupled and the Inflation Reduction Act increased available funds tenfold.
But with the new administration, the office changed direction and eliminated its green outlook, which President Donald Trump called fraud. In addition to the official name change, the agency now focuses on six areas: nuclear; coal, oil, gas and hydrocarbons; critical materials and minerals; geothermal; network and transmission; and manufacturing and transportation.
“Every project we do will make energy more affordable for Americans, help us gain artificial intelligence, strengthen the grid, and get us out from under China’s strategy to dominate certain critical minerals,” Beard said. “Everything we do will have a very specific focus.”
EDF is now ‘open for business’
During the first Trump administration, EDF was largely inactive. But now the office is ready for business, Beard said. “We have direction. We’re open for business. … I think we’re going to invest this capital in America’s future in record time,” he said.
The office has about 80 active loan applications in preparation, according to Beard. It’s a mix of new projects as well as projects being reframed to meet the administration’s priorities, he said.
Reorganized EDF distributed three loans AEP, Constellation Energy and Wabash Valley Springs. All three emerged during the previous administration. But Beard said the pace would pick up soon, hinting that the upcoming announcement could be the agency’s biggest loan yet.
“The first quarters were really a turnaround job to fix what this office had done in the past,” he said. “We are now focused on the future.”
The first soup-to-nuts loan from EDF will likely serve as a starting point for “a wave of loans around affordability, reliability and increased generation on the grid,” Beard said, adding that “a big chunk of the capital” will be focused on energy costs.
Affordability becomes a bigger issue as the midterm approaches. Electricity prices are rising faster than general inflation and are becoming a pain point for consumers who are struggling in every way.
Power demand has grown at a steady pace over the years, allowing utilities to anticipate future needs, sometimes planning decades in advance. But this is changing. Power demand is rising for a number of reasons, including the insatiable power needs of AI, the resumption of manufacturing and broader electrification.
Reliability is also an important issue. The lack of accessible power is seen as a potential bottleneck in the AI arms race with China. Increasingly frequent and severe storms attributed to climate change are another source of stress on the power grid.
The Trump administration announced a series of initiatives in early February that it said would help meet demand, including directing the Defense Department to purchase coal power and keep coal-fired plants operating. Coal use in the United States has been declining for years, thanks to competition from cheaper gas and renewable energy sources.
Beard hopes EDF can address the supply shortage. One way, he said, is to focus on maximizing current production.
“We need to renew and renew the current generation, and even if we do, we shouldn’t close it down. And we shouldn’t make the hill, which is already a mountain, even more difficult to climb,” he said.
New construction is also part of the picture, he said. “We need to remember again how important it is to do this and build this. So that’s what we’re really pushing for,” he said.
Allowing delays can challenge new projects. In many regions of the country, there has been a backlog of projects that want to connect to the grid for years.
Amid the supply shortage, some have criticized the administration’s decision to cancel several offshore wind projects that are more than 90% complete. (The judge has since ordered construction restarted.) Critics say the administration should have been more open to wind and solar power, which can be produced at lower costs and, in some cases, connected to the grid more quickly.
One way to compare costs between energy sources is to look at the levelized cost of energy, or LCOE. The cost of new utility-scale solar ranges from $38 to $78 per megawatt-hour, according to widely cited data from Lazard. Onshore wind is $37-86/MWh, gas combined cycle is $48-109/MWh, and coal is $71-173/MWh.
However, LCOE does not take into account the capacity factor as well as the value of dispatchable resources or the amount of time an asset produces at maximum output. According to the Energy Information Administration, nuclear has the highest capacity factor of over 90%. The proportion of combined cycle gas is roughly 69%, that of coal is 43%. Wind and solar energy are at 34% and 23% respectively.
Everything is ‘on the table’ for new nuclear
EDF has traditionally been a major supporter of capital-intensive nuclear projects that have occasionally gone over budget and behind schedule. And now, as the Trump administration puts its emphasis on nuclear and calls for quadrupling U.S. capacity by 2050, nuclear has become a priority for the agency.
“We can’t lean any further,” Beard said, adding that more activity in the space is expected in the coming months and quarters. He said the agency is ready to lend up to 80% of the project cost.
Electric transmission towers, poles and lines are shown in the early morning hours of a hot summer day on August 7, 2025 in Commerce, California.
Mike Blake | Reuters
Technology companies have also turned to nuclear power to power their data centers because it is the only source of emission-free baseload power. Hyperscalers have signed power purchase agreements with Constellation and similar companies. Vista at above-market prices, which shows how desirable nuclear energy is – unlike wind and solar power, the reactors are online 24/7. Big tech has also backed small modular reactor companies, or SMRs, that promise faster timelines and controlled costs.
EDF in November finalized a $1 billion loan to Constellation Energy for the restart of its shuttered reactor on Three Mile Island, now known as the Crane Clean Energy Center. The agency had previously provided $12 billion. Southern Company $1.5 billion loan guarantee to Holtec for the construction of reactors 3 and 4 at Plant Vogtle, as well as the restart of the Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert Township, Michigan. There are no commercial-scale reactors currently under construction in the United States, although Westinghouse, the maker of the AP1000 reactor, has said it plans to build 10 large reactors with construction starting in 2030.
Beard pointed out that Trump’s extension of the investment tax credit is advantageous for the industry. He said EDF plans to support these long-deadline projects.
“We spent the last year reducing costs and creating incentive structures that will allow this industry to thrive again,” he said. “Our view is that everything is on the table to restart this industry.”
Breaking China’s mining dominance
Another key focus for EDF will be critical minerals as part of a broader effort for the United States to bolster domestic supply and move away from foreign dependence. China has weaponized metals in the past by restricting exports of rare earth elements, and given its dominance of metals supply chains – especially when it comes to refining – there are fears they could restrict other exports as well.
Beard said the Defense Department is trying to solve “crisis-level problems” but EDF plans to support companies looking to break China’s dominance of metals for everything from consumer products to the power grid to artificial intelligence.
“If China is in the 10th year of the 20-year plan, we will intervene and support projects and companies that disrupt this strategy,” he said.
Although the agency’s restructuring means a reduction in staff, Beard said it won’t slow the pace of loans or harm the quality of the projects it supports. Instead, he said, fewer people will be needed because EDF will focus on projects that can be copied rather than unique projects that don’t make economic sense.
“I am just a professional investor and a new government man,” he said. “Discipline is making sure we do projects that benefit Americans and pay off.”
