Trump Picks Gas Executive to Lead Energy Department

President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Chris Wright, founder and CEO of Denver-based fracking company Liberty Energy, to be his next energy secretary.

If approved by the Senate, Wright will likely be tasked with rolling back many Biden-era climate initiatives led by DOE. These include initiatives funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, which Trump has disparaged. Wright has been openly critical of federal efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, writing in an August op-ed that Vice President Kamala Harris’s proposals to achieve “net zero” emissions are “economic suicide.” Instead, Wright proposed that the Trump administration run on the message of “zero energy poverty,” with the goal of ensuring “no one would struggle to afford their utility bills” by “unleashing our vast natural resources.” He also is a vocal skeptic of climate science.

Before joining the energy industry, Wright earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1985 and completed graduate work in electrical engineering at UC Berkeley and MIT. In 1992 he founded the company Pinnacle Technologies, an early player in the fracking industry, and served as its CEO until 2006. During that period, the company partnered with DOE to refine fracking technology.

As head of DOE, Wright would oversee its network of 17 national labs and its sites for nuclear weapons production and environmental remediation. Trump has also selected Wright to join a forthcoming National Energy Council.

In a statement announcing Wright’s nomination, Trump wrote that the council 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.” Another aim of the council will be to “drive down Inflation, win the A.I. arms race with China (and others), and expand American Diplomatic Power to end Wars all across the World.”

This news brief originally appeared in FYI’s newsletter for the week of Nov. 18.