United States President-elect Donald Trump chose Chris Wright, CEO of Denver-based oil company Liberty Energy, as the next Secretary of Energy, in a statement this Saturday (16).
The oil executive will also serve as a member of the newly formed National Energy Council, which Trump said will consist of all agencies involved in the “permitting, producing, generating, distributing, regulating, transporting” energy.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — Trump’s pick for Interior secretary — will serve as chairman of the board.
“Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American Shale Revolution that drove American Energy Independence and transformed Global Energy Markets and Geopolitics,” Trump wrote in the statement.
In addition to the company’s work in oil, drilling and natural gas, Wright serves on the board of a modular nuclear reactor company and has spoken about the potential of nuclear energy.
Nuclear energy development has become a major focus of the Biden administration’s Department of Energy. The department also houses the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency that maintains the nuclear stockpile.
Climate change
Wright is likely to share Trump’s opposition to global cooperation on climate change. He has called climate change activists alarmists and compared Democrats’ efforts to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism.
“There is no climate crisis and we are not in the middle of an energy transition either,” Wright said in a video posted to his LinkedIn profile last year.
Wright, who has no political experience, has written extensively about the need for greater fossil fuel production to lift people out of poverty.
“The world runs on oil and gas, and we need it,” Wright told CNBC in a 2023 interview. He stated that calls to transition away from fossil fuels within a decade were an “absurd amount of time.”
He stood out among oil and gas executives for his laid-back style and describes himself as a technology nerd.
Wright made waves in the media in 2019 when he drank fracking fluid on camera to demonstrate that the substance was not dangerous.
US oil production has reached the highest level ever produced by any country under the Biden administration.
Most drilling decisions are made by private companies working on land not owned by the federal government.
In 2021, the International Energy Agency said that for the world to keep the worst impacts of global warming under control, no new fossil fuel developments should be approved. Many countries, including the US under President Joe Biden, have approved new projects since then.
With information from Reuters.
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This content was originally published in Trump chooses oil industry CEO Chris Wright as Energy Secretary on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
