Reagan on Abolishing the U.S. Department of Energy (it’s Trump’s turn)
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 24, 2025
“Will the Trump Administration challenge against climate alarm and forced energy transformation reach its logical end? Can commercial nuclear power be privatized away from DOE for this to happen? Can ‘carbon management’ be demoted as part of this? Free market, classical liberal proponents can only hope so.”
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) was a mistake on Day 1. It continues to be a harem of government intervention on the supply and demand sides. It should be abolished as an easy budget cut, with the military side moved back to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Remember President Reagan’s campaign pledge to abolish DOE? He continued the promise into his first term, with his energy secretary, James Edwards, promising to work himself out of a job and “spread salt on the earth to make sure [DOE] never rose again.”
Here is the Reagan’s “Statement About the Plan Selected To Dismantle the Department of Energy” (December 17, 1981).
https://www.masterresource.org/reagan-ronald/reagan-abolishing-doe/