USA: Trump picks Chris Wright, fossil fuel advocate and climate change denier, to lead Department of Energy
WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he had chosen Chris Wright, a staunch defender of fossil fuel use and climate change denier, to lead the Department of Energy.
Wright, the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm based in Denver, is expected to support Trump’s plan to maximise oil and gas production. He is also likely to focus on boosting electricity generation, responding to rising demand for power, which is increasing for the first time in decades.
Accordingly, he is also likely to share Trump’s opposition to global cooperation on fighting climate change, as he previously dismissed activists as alarmists and compared Democratic efforts to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism.
“There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either,” Wright said in a video posted to his LinkedIn profile last year.
Known for his freewheeling style and lacking political experience, Wright has written extensively about the need to increase fossil fuel production as a way to lift people out of poverty.
In 2019, Wright attracted media attention when he drunk fracking fluid on camera to prove it was not harmful.
The Department of Energy manages U.S. energy diplomacy, oversees the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and administers grant and loan programs to advance energy technologies, including those through the Loan Programs Office.
The secretary also manages the ageing U.S. nuclear weapons complex, nuclear waste disposal, and 17 national laboratories.
It is noteworthy that U.S. oil output reached the highest level ever recorded under Biden, and based on the incoming administration’s approach, production may increase even further.
