Published: November 18, 2024 |

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President-elect Donald Trump named oil industry CEO Chris Wright to lead the Energy Department, installing a vocal critic of government efforts to fight climate change as the head of the agency at the forefront of the Biden administration’s clean energy push.

Wright, if confirmed by the Senate, is likely to be one of the loudest voices in the administration against measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels that are raising the planet’s temperature and causing an upsurge in extreme weather.

He’d be charged with fulfilling Trump’s campaign promise to claw back billions of dollars in funding supporting the Biden administration’s climate and energy agenda — and restarting the department’s issuance of natural gas export permits that had been paused by President Joe Biden early this year.

The CEO of Denver-based fracking company Liberty Energy, Wright is a Republican fundraiser whose candidacy for the job atop the Energy Department has been pushed by Harold Hamm, the oil executive who has advised Trump on energy issues. At DOE, Wright would lead a department that maintains the country’s nuclear weapons fleet, oversees the network of national laboratories, and has played a key role in disbursing funds under President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

“As Secretary of Energy, Chris will be a key leader, driving innovation, cutting red tape, and ushering in a new ‘Golden Age of American Prosperity and Global Peace,’” Trump said in his announcement.

Wright will also serve with Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum on the new National Energy Council, which Trump said “will oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the Economy, and by focusing on INNOVATION over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation.”

Though it has little direct influence over U.S. oil and gas production, the Energy Department will likely play a critical role in Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” effort to support the fossil fuel industry, increase oil and gas output, and cut U.S. energy costs.

“My dedication to bettering human lives remains steadfast, with a focus on making American energy more affordable, reliable, and secure. Energy is the lifeblood that makes everything in life possible,” Wright wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the announcement. “Energy matters.”

Trump has pledged to halt the Biden administration’s climate initiatives, which he has derided as the “green new scam.” The DOE is playing a major role in the effort, delivering billions of dollars in loans and grants to technologies to help transition energy production to renewable sources and curb climate change, including those that capture the heat-trapping carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.

The future of those programs is now in question, particularly with Wright as Energy secretary.

Republicans were effusive about the pick. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the top Republican on the Energy Committee, in a statement called Wright “an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America’s fracking boom.”

George David Banks, Trump’s former international energy adviser, also praised the Wright nomination.

“I like the way he talks about energy and climate policy. Wright understands the importance of U.S. LNG in reducing global emissions and improving the daily lives of the poor in the developing world. He also points out that offshoring production leads to higher pollution because of the superior environmental performance of U.S. producers and manufacturers,” Banks said in a text message.

Reaction to Wright’s nomination from the fossil fuel sector was positive. Tom Pyle, president of American Energy Alliance, in a text message called Wright “a solid choice for Energy Secretary.”

Wright studied engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2011, he founded Liberty, a natural gas fracking service company. He also serves on the board of Oklo, a start-up Silicon Valley-based company developing a new type of small nuclear reactor.

Liberty and Wright are among the entities that sued the Securities and Exchange Commission over its climate disclosure rule. He testified before a House committee in April against the rule, where he argued that climate change is not within the SEC’s purview and derided the “destructive mission creep” of the agency.

“He’s a smart guy,” Dan Eberhart, CEO of Denver-based oil field service company Canary, said of Wright.

Source: Politico

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