US President-elect Trump delivers a speech when meeting with Republican members of the House of Representatives at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Washington, DC, the United States on November 13, 2024.
Alison Robert | Reuters
President-elect Donald Trump Oil and gas industry executive Chris Wright, a staunch defender of the use of fossil fuels, will be his choice to lead the Energy Department, he said on Saturday.
Wright is the founder and CEO of Denver-based oilfield services company Liberty Energy. He is expected to support Trump’s plan to maximize oil and natural gas production and seek ways to increase power generation, with demand for electricity rising for the first time in decades.
He may also share Trump’s opposition to global cooperation on climate change. Wright called climate change activists alarmists and compared Democratic efforts to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism.
“There is no climate crisis and we are not in the midst of an energy transition,” Wright said in a video posted to his LinkedIn profile last year.
Wright has no political experience, but he has written extensively about the need to increase fossil fuel production to lift people out of poverty.
He stands out among oil and gas executives for his freewheeling style and describes himself as a technology nerd.
In 2019, Wright drew media attention when he drank fracking fluid on camera to prove it wasn’t dangerous.
U.S. oil production has reached the highest level of any country under Biden, and it is uncertain how far Wright and the incoming administration can increase that level.
Most drilling decisions are driven by private companies operating on lands not owned by the federal government.
The Department of Energy handles U.S. energy diplomacy, manages the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (which Trump has said he wants to replenish) and runs grant and loan programs to advance energy technology, such as the Office of Loan Programs.
The secretary of state also oversees the aging U.S. nuclear weapons complex, nuclear energy waste management, and 17 national laboratories.
If confirmed by the Senate, Wright would succeed Jennifer Granholm, a supporter of emerging energy sources such as electric vehicles and geothermal energy, as well as carbon-free wind, solar and nuclear power.
Wright may also be involved in permitting the expansion of electric transmission and nuclear power, an energy source popular with Republicans and Democrats but whose permitting is expensive and complex.
U.S. electricity demand is surging for the first time in two decades, driven by advances in artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and cryptocurrencies.
