Trump picks oil industry executive, climate change denier to lead Energy Department
Chris Wright, a fossil fuel CEO, has said ‘there is no climate crisis’ and likened Democrats’ efforts to combat global warming to communism
US President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday that oil and gas industry executive Chris Wright, a staunch defender of fossil fuel use, would be his pick to lead the Department of Energy.
Wright is the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm based in Denver. He is expected to support Trump’s plan to maximize production of oil and gas and to seek ways to boost generation of electricity, demand for which is rising for the first time in decades.
He is also likely to share Trump’s opposition to global cooperation on fighting climate change. Wright has called climate change activists alarmist and has likened efforts by Democrats to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism.
“There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either,” Wright said in a video posted to his LinkedIn profile last year.
Wright, who does not have any political experience, has written extensively on the need for more fossil fuel production to lift people out of poverty.
He has stood out among oil and gas executives for his freewheeling style, and describes himself as a tech nerd.
Wright made a media splash in 2019 when he drank fracking fluid on camera to demonstrate it was not dangerous.
US oil output hit the highest level any country has ever produced under Biden, and it is uncertain how much Wright and the incoming administration could boost that.
Most drilling decisions are driven by private companies working on land not owned by the federal government.
The Department of Energy handles US energy diplomacy, administers the Strategic Petroleum Reserve – which Trump has said he wants to replenish – and runs grant and loan programs to advance energy technologies, such as the Loan Programs Office.
The secretary also oversees the aging US nuclear weapons complex, nuclear energy waste disposal, and 17 national labs.
If confirmed by the Senate, Wright will replace Jennifer Granholm, a supporter of electric vehicles, emerging energy sources like geothermal power and a backer of carbon-free wind, solar and nuclear energy.
Wright is the latest in a line of Trump’s cabinet picks, some of which may prove difficult to get past Senate confirmation due to controversies or lack of qualifications.
Trump recently tapped former New York lawmaker Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, despite his not having any experience with environmental issues.
Zeldin, a staunch Trump loyalist, wrote on X, “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs.” His nomination, along with Trump’s pick for energy secretary, signals a major shift away from Biden’s environmental-focused energy policy.
Arguably the most controversial nomination is Trump’s pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, the young Florida lawmaker who has been the subject of a number of allegations including sex trafficking, sexual misconduct, drug use and accepting bribes.
Trump’s decision to pick Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth for defense secretary has also been met with backlash after sexual assault allegations against him from 2017 resurfaced, which Trump’s team have said lacked evidence. Critics have also pointed to Hegseth’s complete lack of management experience as reasons why he should not lead the Defense Department, which oversees over 2 million employees.
Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is similarly controversial, as he is an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who has compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust and mused that the COVID-19 pandemic was engineered to spare Ashkenazi Jews.
Trump also recently tapped billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” tasked with overhauling the federal bureaucracy.
The new initiative has raised questions about conflicts of interest given the extensive interactions between Musk’s businesses and the government, and indicates the extraordinary influence of Musk over Trump and his incoming administration.
