Former Apollo executive and longtime New Yorker Gregory Beard says he wouldn’t have left the private sector for just any job.But opportunity came knocking in the form of Energy Secretary Chris Wright,who tapped Beard to run the Office of Energy Dominance Financing.
Previously known as the Loan Programs Office and part of the Energy Department,the EDF is the largest energy lender in the world,with some$289 billion in loan authority currently.
Beard first joined the EDF as a senior advisor in April 2025 from bitcoin miner Stronghold Digital Mining,before officially taking over as director on Jan.29.
“If I didn’t feel passionately about Secretary Wright’s message and why the president chose him,I’d still be in the private sector,”Beard said in an exclusive conversation with CNBC.
Beard has only been at the helm for a few weeks,but he has big plans for the agency,including dispensing capital at a record rate.And at a time when the energy complex is seeing a generational shift and natural resources increasingly drive geopolitics,the EDF can be a key tool in shaping the future of energy in the U.S.
Shaking up the office
Beard says the first order of business was to reexamine the loans granted during the Biden administration,the majority of which were approved in the months between Election Day 2024 and the inauguration.The result of the“turnaround job,”as he called it,impacted more than 80%of the Biden-era portfolio,or about$83.6 billion worth of loans,according to the Department of Energy.Most were focused on emissions-reducing projects.
The review process included making sure projects that stayed in the portfolio align with the Trump administration’s energy goals,Beard said.All told,roughly$30 billion in conditional loan commitments were either canceled or withdrawn by the applicant,with about$53 billion worth of loans restructured,the DOE said.
The goal was to protect taxpayers,and to focus on affordability and reliability,Beard said.“This is not a reversal of policies—it’s a protection of dollars,”he said.
The EDF dates back to 2005.The agency has acted as a bridge of sorts for U.S.companies that might struggle to secure financing via traditional capital markets due to perceived risks.In theory,the rigorous process to secure an EDF loan could be seen as a stamp of approval from the government,opening up additional funding to help nascent companies and technologies get off the ground.Over its more than 20 years there have been hits—including a 2010 loan to Tesla—and misses,most notably backing solar manufacturer Solyndra,which ultimately went bankrupt.
Under President Joe Biden and his climate-focused administration,the agency was supercharged,acting as a green bank of sorts.Staff quadrupled,and the Inflation Reduction Act grew available funds by tenfold.
But with the new administration,the office has changed course,shedding the green angle that President Donald Trump has called a scam.In addition to an official name change,the agency is now focused on six areas:nuclear;coal,oil,gas and hydrocarbons;critical materials and minerals;geothermal;grid and transmission;and manufacturing and transportation.
“Every project that we do will make energy more affordable for Americans,will help us win AI and will bolster the grid and get us out from under the China strategy to dominate certain critical minerals,”Beard said.“Everything we do will have a very specific focus.”
EDF now‘open for business’
During the first Trump administration,the EDF was largely dormant.But now,Beard said,the office is ready to get going.“We have direction.We are open for business.…We will,I think,invest this capital in America’s future in record time,”he said.
The office has about 80 active loan applications in its pipeline,according to Beard.It’s a mix of new projects as well as those that have been reframed to meet the administration’s priorities,he said.
The reorganized EDF has dispensed three loans to AEP,Constellation Energy and Wabash Valley Resources.All three originated during the prior administration.But Beard said the pace will soon pick up,hinting that an upcoming announcement could be the agency’s largest-ever loan.
“The initial quarters were really a turnaround job for fixing what this office had done in the past,”he said.“Now we’re focused on the future.”
The first soup-to-nuts loan from the EDF will likely act as a starting point for a“wave of loans around affordability,reliability and increased generation on the grid,”Beard said,adding that a“big portion of capital”will end up focusing on power costs.
Affordability is becoming a bigger issue as the midterms approach.Electricity prices are rising faster than overall inflation,becoming a pain point for consumers who are feeling pinched on all sides.
For years,power demand grew at a steady clip,giving utilities,which plan sometimes decades in advance,visibility into future needs.But that’s changing.Power demand is rising for a few reasons,including the voracious power needs of artificial intelligence,reshoring of manufacturing and broader electrification.
Reliability is also a key issue.A lack of accessible power is seen as one 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 has announced a host of initiatives it says will help meet the demand,including earlier in February ordering the Defense Department to purchase coal power and keep coal-fired plants running.U.S.coal use has been declining for years thanks to competition from cheaper gas and renewables.
Beard hopes his EDF can address the supply crunch.One avenue is to focus on maximizing existing generation,he said.
“We need to refurbish and refresh existing generation,not shut if off.And not make the hill that’s already a mountain that much tougher to climb,”he said.
Newbuilds are also part of the picture,he said.“We need to remember again how important it is to do it and to build.So that’s really what we’re pushing,”he said.
Permitting delays can challenge new projects.Many regions in the country have a yearslong backlog of projects that want to connect to the grid.
Amid the supply crunch,some have criticized the administration’s decision to cancel several offshore wind projects that were more than 90%complete.(Judges have since ordered construction to resume.)Critics think the administration should be more open to wind and solar,which can be produced at lower costs and in some cases connect to the grid faster.
One way to compare costs across energy sources is by looking at the levelized cost of energy,or LCOE.According to widely cited data from Lazard,new utility-scale solar ranges in cost from$38-$78 per megawatt-hour.Onshore wind is$37-$86/MWh,gas combined cycle is$48-$109/MWh and coal is$71-$173/MWh.
However,the LCOE fails to take into consideration the value of dispatchable resources as well as capacity factor,or the amount of time an asset is producing at its maximum output.Nuclear has the highest capacity factor at over 90%,according to the Energy Information Administration.Combined-cycle gas is at roughly 69%,with coal at 43%.Wind and solar are at 34%and 23%,respectively.
Everything‘on the table’for new nuclear
The EDF has traditionally been an important backer of capital-intensive nuclear projects,which have at times come in over budget and behind schedule.And now,with the Trump administration throwing its weight behind nuclear and calling to quadruple U.S.capacity by 2050,nuclear is a priority for the agency.
“We can’t lean in any harder,”Beard said,adding that more activity in the space is expected in coming months and quarters.The agency is willing to lend up to 80%of the project cost,he said.
Tech companies also have turned to nuclear to power their data centers given it’s the only source of emissions-free baseload power.Hyperscalers have signed power purchase agreements with the likes of Constellation and Vistra at above-market prices,indicating how desirable nuclear power is—reactors are online 24/7,unlike wind and solar power.Big tech has also backed small modular reactor companies,or SMRs,which promise faster timelines and controlled costs.
The EDF in November finalized a$1 billion loan to Constellation Energy to restart its shuttered reactor at Three Mile Island,now known as the Crane Clean Energy Center.The agency previously provided$12 billion to Southern Company to build reactors 3 and 4 at Plant Vogtle,as well as a$1.5 billion loan guarantee to Holtec to restart the Palisades nuclear plant in Covert Township,Michigan.At present there are no commercial-scale reactors under construction in the U.S.,although Westinghouse—maker of the AP1000 reactor—said it plans to build 10 large reactors,with construction beginning in 2030.
Beard pointed to Trump’s extension of the investment tax credit as advantageous for the industry.He said the EDF plans to support these long lead time projects.
“We spent the last year costing out and creating the incentive structures to let this industry flourish again,”he said.“Our view is everything that is required to restart this industry is on the table.”
Breaking China’s minerals dominance
Another key focus for the EDF will be critical minerals,as part of a broader push for the U.S.to shore up domestic supplies and move away from foreign dependence.China has weaponized metals in the past by restricting exports of rare earths,and given it dominates metal supply chains—especially when it comes to refining—there’s fear they could curb other exports.
Beard said that the Department of Defense is working on solving“crisis-level issues,”but that EDF plans to back companies seeking to break China’s chokehold on metals key for everything from consumer products to the power grid and AI.
“If China is in year 10 of a 20-year plan,we will intervene and support those projects and companies that interrupt that strategy,”he said.
Although the agency’s reorganization meant a reduction in staff,Beard said it won’t slow the pace of loans or hurt the quality of projects it backs.Instead,he said,fewer people will be needed because the EDF will focus on projects that can be replicated,rather than one-of-a-kind projects that don’t make economic sense.
“I’m only really a professional investor and a new government guy,”he said.“The discipline is make sure we are doing projects that benefit Americans and will be repaid.”
