Quote of the Day: “From nuclear to solar to geothermal to oil & gas, Chris Wright has been a pioneer of American energy,” and “Chris Wright + Doug Burgum is literally the dream team.” Christopher Barnard, President, American Conservation Coalition
Trump Picks Oil and Gas Executive as New Energy Secretary
Daniel Proctor, Power, November 16, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump announced that Chris Wright, the CEO and founder of Denver, Colorado-based Liberty Energy, will lead the Department of Energy (DOE) in the new administration.
“I am thrilled to announce that Chris Wright will be joining my Administration as both United States Secretary of Energy, and Member of the newly formed Council of National Energy,” Trump wrote in a statement released Nov. 16. The newly-elected president wrote that Wright “has been a leading technologist and entrepreneur in Energy.”
Wright, who founded oilfield services company Liberty Energy in 2011 and also serves as executive chairman of Liberty Resources, a company focused on the Bakken shale play in North Dakota, “has worked in Nuclear, Solar, Geothermal, and Oil and Gas,” Trump’s statement read. “Most significantly, Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American Shale Revolution that fueled American Energy Independence, and transformed the Global Energy Markets and Geopolitics.”
Wright in a post to social media platform X wrote: “I am honored and grateful for the opportunity from
@realDonaldTrump to serve our country as U.S. Secretary of Energy. My dedication to bettering human lives remains steadfast, with a focus on making American energy more affordable, reliable, and secure. Energy is the lifeblood that makes everything in life possible. Energy matters. I am looking forward to getting to work.”
DOE Oversight
The DOE has oversight over several federal government agencies, including the Loan Programs Office, which runs grant and loan programs to advance energy technologies, including electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy. The DOE also oversees the U.S. nuclear waste disposal, the nuclear weapons complex, and 17 national labs. Trump during his first term asked Congress for deep cuts in funding to several federal programs, including the DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Trump on Saturday also said that Wright, in addition to his role as energy secretary, would serve on a newly formed Council of National Energy that would be led by Doug Burgum, the president-elect’s nominee for Interior Secretary. Trump has said the group would focus on cutting regulations and increasing investments to ramp up oil and gas production. The U.S. has led the world in oil and gas production each year since 2018, and has reached record levels of output during the Biden administration, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Trump has said the Energy Council would include all agencies and departments involved in the production, regulation, and transportation of “ALL forms of American Energy.”
Wright, well-known in the U.S. oil and gas community and a previous speaker at LDC Gas Forums events—a group that is part of Access Intelligence, the parent of POWER—has a degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He also completed graduate work in electrical engineering at University of California-Berkeley and MIT. He will need to be confirmed for the position by the U.S. Senate, although Trump has floated the idea of allowing recess appointments to his Cabinet and other positions to avoid Senate action. The U.S. Constitution’s recess appointments power allows a president to make a temporary appointment to a position that would normally require Senate confirmation while the Senate is in recess. Those recess appointments would last until the end of the upcoming session of Congress, which in this case would be 2026.
Wright if confirmed would replace Jennifer Granholm as head of the DOE. Granholm, a former governor of Michigan, was chosen as Energy Secretary by President Biden in 2021. Granholm has been a proponent of clean energy. In a September 2024 interview with TIME magazine, Granholm said since she took office in 2021, the DOE has hired about 1,000 new workers and created new leadership roles. Granholm said the changes helped the DOE implement 60 new programs, and support funding for thousands of energy-related projects.
Wright runs a foundation that has dispelled the conventional wisdom on human-caused climate change and promotes increased production of fossil fuels as a solution to many of the world’s problems. According to the Denver Business Journal, campaign contribution records from the Federal Elections Commission show that Wright and his wife, Liz Wright, gave $599,681 since Jan. 1 of last year to federal political action committees associated with Republican causes, the Republican National Committee and the Trump 47 Committee. FEC records show that $457,980 worth of contributions, or $228,990 in two identical contributions by each of the Wrights, were made in July and August of this year to the Trump 47 Committee Inc.
The Houston, Texas-based Energy Workforce & Technology Council (EWTC) in an emailed statement to POWER said it supported Wright’s nomination. “Chris Wright is a visionary leader who has consistently advocated for advancing American energy,” said Tim Tarpley, Energy Workforce president. “His groundbreaking Bettering Human Lives report brought to light the moral case for expanding American energy production to grow our economy and improve living standards of those across the country. As a dedicated member of the Energy Workforce & Technology Council, Chris has an unparalleled understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the energy sector. There is no doubt that his expertise and leadership will make him an outstanding Secretary of Energy. EWTC looks forward to partnering with him to unleashing the full potential of American energy.”
Republican Sen. John Barrasso, who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called Wright “an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America’s fracking boom … our country is desperate for a secretary [of energy] who understands how important American energy is to our economy and our national security. Wright will help ensure America remains committed to an all-of-the-above energy policy that puts American families first.”
Christopher Barnard, president of the American Conservation Coalition, also was among those applauding the choice of Wright. “From nuclear to solar to geothermal to oil & gas, Chris Wright has been a pioneer of American energy,” Barnard wrote on X. “Chris Wright + Doug Burgum is literally the dream team.”