Trump announces oil executive Chris Wright as his pick for energy secretary

The Department of Energy building is seen in Washington, D.C., on July 22, 2019. Trump picked Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright as his energy secretary.

Alastair Pike/AFP via Getty Images

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Alastair Pike/AFP via Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he picked oil executive Chris Wright to be the secretary of energy, a role in which he’s likely to promote fossil fuel development and reverse many Biden-era initiatives.

“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 a statement.

Trump added that Wright will also serve as part of a new Council of National Energy, which the president-elect unveiled on Friday, saying that it “will consist of all Departments and Agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of ALL forms of American Energy.”

Trump selected North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as the head of the Council of National Energy as well as his pick to be interior secretary.

Wright heads an oil fracking company

Wright is the chief executive of oil and natural gas fracking services company Liberty Energy and sits on the board of a nuclear reactor company, according to his biography on Liberty’s website.

He has strongly advocated for the need for more fossil fuels, putting him in line with Trump’s repeated call for more oil production.

Wright has also expressed doubts about whether climate change is driving extreme weather events.

“There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either,” Wright said in a video uploaded to LinkedIn.

“We have seen no increase in the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts or floods despite endless fear mongering of the media, politicians and activists,” he also said in the video. “The only thing resembling a crisis with respect to climate change is the regressive, opportunity-squelching policies justified in the name of climate change.”

That contradicts the U.S. government’s own National Climate Assessment, which concluded that climate change is increasing “the frequency and severity of many types of extreme weather events,” including contributing to more intense hurricanes, heat waves and flooding.

A major environmental advocacy group sharply criticized Trump’s pick of Chris Wright to head the Department of Energy.

“Given the devastating impacts of climate-fueled disasters, DOE’s core mission of researching and promoting cleaner energy solutions is more important now than ever,” said the Natural Resources Defense Council in an emailed statement. “Putting a champion of dirty fossil fuels in as the leader of the department would be a disastrous mistake.”

Trump is likely to reverse Biden’s energy policies

The Department of Energy was founded in 1977, in the aftermath of the oil crisis, bringing nuclear weapons programs and energy-related programs under one umbrella. Its network of national laboratories conducts a wide array of scientific research.

Under Biden, the DOE has pushed for the decarbonization of the entire U.S. economy, with ambitious goals for using 100% carbon-free electricity by 2035. The agency has also promoted energy efficiency, zero-carbon transportation and power grid improvements.

The DOE has deployed billions of dollars to pursue those goals — money approved by Congress, but actually distributed by the department.

Trump and his allies have opposed many of these spending measures, calling them wasteful, and either dismissed or deprioritized efforts to fight climate change, suggesting a radically reshaped DOE in the future.

One major question to be answered in the coming months is how much of this congressionally allocated spending the incoming administration may be able to nix or claw back — and which types of funding might have enough Republican support to survive.

The nomination will require confirmation from the Senate, where Republicans are poised to hold a majority of seats next year.