President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Chris Wright, a fracking executive who has long ties to the energy industry, to lead the Department of Energy.
President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday that he has nominated Chris Wright, an executive of a fracking company who has fiercely criticized the existence of a climate crisis and the transition to renewable energy sources, to run the Department of Energy.
“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 Truth Social post.
The Senate must approve Wright before he can assume his role.
He has had a long history in the energy industry and has been outspoken about fracking.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 80s, Wright worked for several energy companies, many of which focused on gas production, according to his LinkedIn page.
Wright, who has never worked in a government position, founded the publicly traded oilfield services firm Liberty Energy in 2010, which fracks 20% of the onshore wells nationally. The $3 billion company is involved in nearly 10% of the United States’ total energy production, according to Wright.Outspoken critic of policies aimed at curbing climate change
Wright has made several public comments chastising efforts to fight climate change with unproven claims.
“There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either”, Wright said in a video posted to LinkedIn last year.
“The only thing resembling a crisis with respect to climate change is the regressive opportunity squelching policies justified in the name of climate change”, he added.
A 2021 study published in the environmental journal Environmental Research Letters, found that 99% of climate scientists agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change.
