Fracking CEO Chris Wright is on track to be the nation’s next energy secretary despite a few tense moments during his confirmation hearing.
The tension largely centered around climate change. Wright acknowledges that the planet is warming, but has downplayed the phenomenon’s connection to extreme weather.
Nevertheless, even some Democrats expressed support for his nomination, including Sen. John Hickenlooper (Colo), who introduced Wright at the start of the hearing.
“He’s a scientist who has invested his life around energy. He is indeed an unrestrained enthusiast for fossil fuels in almost every regard, but he studied nuclear,” Hickenlooper said. “His first years of working were in solar. He has experience in wind. He is a practitioner and a key innovator around geothermal.”
“I have high optimism we can work together,” Hickenlooper added.
Wright is the CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking technology company. He’s poised to run the Energy Department, which oversees energy research and loans, as well as the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) posed tough questions to Wright over some of his past comments, particularly a Linkedin post in which Wright wrote: “The hype over wildfires is just hype to justify more impoverishment from bad government policies.”
In the post he also included a link to an op-ed titled “Climate Change Hasn’t Set the World on Fire.”
Padilla asked: “Given the devastation that we’re currently experiencing in Los Angeles, do you still believe that wildfires are just hype?”
“I stand by my past comment,” Wright said in response but also said that “climate change is a real and global phenomenon.”
“Tell that to the families of the more than two dozen lost in these fires,” Padilla retorted.
At various points during the hearing, several climate protesters interrupted, objecting to Wright’s position as a fossil fuel CEO and invoking the raging wildfires.
He also faced tough questions from Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) about a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser in which President-elect Trump asked energy executives for $1 billion in campaign cash.
The Washington Post reported that during the fundraiser Trump asked energy tycoons to raise $1 billion for his campaign and that doing so would be a “deal” because of the money they would save due to his policies.
“The president put forward no such deal,” said Wright, who donated more than $200,000 to the Trump 47 joint fundraising committee.
“That’s not what was reported,” Hirono responded.
In response to questions from Hickenlooper, Wright acknowledged that climate change is happening, saying it is “a global issue, it is a real issue, it is a challenging issue.”
“The solution to climate change is to evolve our energy system,” he added.
“Do I wish we could make faster progress? Absolutely. Are there things we can do — investments, together, through the department of energy to accelerate development of new energy technologies that are really the only pathway to address climate change, absolutely. We should have nothing but American leadership in this area.”
This marks somewhat of a departure from his previous comments. In a video posted online, he has previously said “there is no climate crisis and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.”
“We have seen no increase in the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts or floods despite endless fear-mongering of the media, politicians and activists,” he adds in the nearly 13-minute video.
The United Nations’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says climate change is causing more frequent and intense heat waves and is likely increasing the frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation.
