PALM BEACH (AP) – United States (US) President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in his upcoming, second administration.
Denver-based Liberty Energy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Wright is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve US “energy dominance” in the global market.
Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change, and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.
Frequently criticising what he calls a “top-down” approach to climate by liberal and left-wing groups, Wright has argued that the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight”. He has never served in government, but has written that more fossil fuel production is needed around the globe to lift people out of poverty.
Consideration of Wright to head the administration’s energy department won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm.
Executive chairman Hamm of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a long-time Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. Hamm helped organise an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where Trump reportedly asked industry leaders and lobbyists to donate USD1 billion to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation that Trump would curtail environmental regulations if re-elected.
President Mike Sommers of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s top lobbying group, said Wright’s experience in the energy sector “gives him an important perspective that will inform his leadership” of the Energy Department.
“We look forward to working with him once confirmed to bolster American geopolitical strength by lifting DOE’s pause on LNG export permits and ensuring the open access of American energy for our allies around the world,” Sommers said.
Senior Vice President Jackie Wong for climate and energy at the Natural Resources Defence Council, an environmental group, called Wright “a champion of dirty fossil fuels” and said his nomination to lead the Energy Department was “a disastrous mistake”.
“The Energy Department should be doing all it can to develop and expand the energy sources of the 21st Century, not trying to promote the dirty fuels of the last century,” Wong said. “Given the devastating impacts of climate-fuelled disasters, DOE’s core mission of researching and promoting cleaner energy solutions is more important now than ever.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the US. The agency is in charge of maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons, oversees 17 national research laboratories and approves natural gas exports, as well as ensuring environmental cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. It also promotes scientific and technological research.
Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Trump promised bold choices for his Cabinet, and Wright’s nomination delivers.
If confirmed, Wright will join North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Trump’s choice to be interior secretary, as a key player on energy policy in a second Trump term. Wright will be a member of a new National Energy Council that Burgum will chair. The new panel will seek to establish US “energy dominance” around the world, Trump said.
President Thomas Pyle of the American Energy Alliance, a conservative group that supports fossil fuels, said Wright would be “an excellent choice” for energy secretary. Pyle led Trump’s Energy Department’s transition team in 2016.
The announcement of Wright’s selection came hours after a key Trump ally, billionaire Elon Musk, called for more direct public input into the decision-making process for another top post that the president-elect is still mulling, the head of his new administration’s Treasury Department.
