The US Senate confirmed fracking pioneer Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy, elevating another cabinet official committed to President Trump’s agenda to “drill, baby, drill” by boosting fossil fuel production nationwide.
Wright, 59, was approved in a 59-38 vote, with both Republicans and Democrats supporting his confirmation as the next energy secretary after clearing a procedural hurdle last week on a bipartisan basis as well.
He had already been tapped by Trump to serve on the White House’s Council of National Energy under recently confirmed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the former governor of North Dakota.
The Denver-based Liberty Energy CEO had helped drive America’s fracking renaissance in the mid-2000s, leading in the next decade to the US becoming the top producer of oil and natural gas.
“Mr. Wright calls himself, and I quote, ‘a science geek turned energy nerd turned lifelong energy entrepreneur,’” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said in a Monday floor speech.
“Our colleague Senator Hickenlooper [D-CO] has known Chris Wright for many years and he described him not only as a successful entrepreneur but, as I quote, ‘a scientist who is open to discussion and someone who has that ability to assess what is possible and what isn’t’,” Thune said.
Along with Burgum and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Wright has committed to a policy of “energy dominance” while still acknowledging global issues caused by climate change.
“I am for improving all energy technologies that can better human lives and reduce emissions. They go together,” he told members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in a hearing earlier this month.
For Wright, that includes reversing his predecessor Jennifer Granholm’s priorities by increasing production in all sectors — including nuclear energy, oil, natural gas, wind, solar, geothermal energy and new battery technologies.
His zeal for energy innovation made him go as far as to drink fracking fluid, which uses water, bleach, soap and other substances, in a March 2019 video posted on Facebook in a rebuke to his critics who charged that the chemical cocktail contained substances poisonous to groundwater.
Former President Joe Biden — in a federal effort to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 — had curtailed offshore drilling, paused new and existing approvals for liquid natural gas exports and handed out billions of dollars to so-called “green” energy initiatives.
Those efforts had heavily favored clean-energy solutions through wind and solar production, whereas Trump’s Day One executive actions sought to do away with regulations disfavoring fossil fuels.
“There isn’t dirty energy and clean energy,” Wright had pushed back during his confirmation hearing. “All energies are different, and they all have different trade-offs.”
Trump, 78, in announcing his pick said Wright “will be a key leader, driving innovation, cutting red tape, and ushering in a new ‘Golden Age of American Prosperity and Global Peace.’”
The oil big has denied, however, as Democrats have contended that the US is facing a climate emergency of existential proportions.
“There is no climate crisis — and we are not in the midst of an energy transition either,” he said two years ago in a video shared on LinkedIn.
