Donald Trump names fossil fuel executive Chris Wright as Energy Secretary

Offshore oil and gas platform Edith, right, and Eureka oil and gas platform stand in the Beta Field off the coast of Long Beach, California, U.S. Senators from California, Oregon and Washington introduced legislation to ban offshore oil drilling off the West Coast amid mounting concern about the BP Deepwater Horizon rig spill spreading in the Gulf of Mexico.

“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.

Jackie Wong, senior vice president for climate and energy at the Natural Resources Defense 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-fueled 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 the United States’ energy, environmental, and nuclear security. The agency is in charge of maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons, overseeing 17 national research laboratories, approving natural gas exports, and ensuring environmental cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. It also promotes scientific and technological research.

Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, expected to become Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Trump promised bold choices for his Cabinet, and Wright’s nomination delivers.

“He’s an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America’s fracking boom. After four years of ‘America-last’ energy policy, our country is desperate for a secretary who understands how important American energy is to our economy and our national security,″ Barrasso said.

If confirmed, Wright will join North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s choice to be interior secretary, as a critical player on energy policy in a second Trump term. Wright will be a member of a new National Energy Council that Burgum will chair. Trump said the new panel will seek to establish U.S. “energy dominance” worldwide.

Thomas Pyle, president 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.

Liberty is a major energy industry service provider focusing on technology. Wright, who grew up in Colorado, earned an undergraduate degree at MIT and did graduate work in electrical engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and MIT. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, which helped launch commercial shale gas production through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

He later served as Chair of Stroud Energy, an early shale gas producer, before founding Liberty Resources in 2010.

Wright’s selection was announced hours after a key Trump ally, billionaire Elon Musk, called for more direct public input into the decision-making process for the head of his new administration’s Treasury Department, another top post that the president-elect is still considering.

“Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback,” Musk, who Trump has already tapped to co-lead a commission tasked with increasing government spending efficiency, posted Saturday on the X social media platform he owns.

Musk used the rest of his post to become the first participant in the public poll he was proposing, endorsing Howard Lutnick, the CEO of financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald and co-Chair of Trump’s transition team, over hedge fund manager Scott Bessent.

Musk said in his post, “Bessent is a business-as-usual choice, whereas @howardlutnick will actually enact change.”

“Business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt, so we need change,” he said.

Lutnick and Bessent are possible picks to lead the Treasury Department. Bessent is considered the more conventional, business-friendly choice. He is skeptical about cryptocurrency, while Lutnick is friendlier to the crypto industry.

Trump’s pick to lead his Health and Human Services Department, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also endorsed Lutnick, posting on his own X account, “Bitcoin is the currency of freedom, a hedge against inflation for middle-class Americans.”

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.