Donald Trump to nominate oil industry CEO and donor Chris Wright to be secretary of Energy

WASHINGTON - President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday said he plans to nominate oil industry executive Chris Wright, a 2024 campaign donor and skeptic on climate change science, to lead the Department of Energy in his second term in the White House.

If confirmed by the Senate, Wright, the Colorado-based CEO of Liberty Energy, would take over a department that oversees the country's energy supplies, research and development of nuclear power, 17 national laboratories and the cleanup of Cold War-era nuclear efforts.

Wright, who according to federal campaign contribution records has donated to Trump's White House run and other Republican causes, also will be a member of Trump's newly-formed Council of National Energy, which is set to be led by Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum, the president-elect said in his statement.

"This team will drive U.S. Energy Dominance, which will drive down Inflation, win the A.I. arms race with China (and others), and expand American Diplomatic Power to end Wars all across the World," Trump said in the statement.

Wright is set to join an incoming GOP administration led by Trump, who campaigned for president on a platform to roll back the climate change policies and clean energy spending ushered in during the Biden administration.

In a video posted in 2023 on LinkedIn, Wright took aim at the scientific consensus that manmade greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for the warming planet.

"There is no climate crisis and we're not in the midst of an energy transition either," said Wright, whose company counts among its services the hydraulic fracking technique used to extract natural gas and oil from deep below the Earth's surface.

Trump himself pushed back against the existence of climate change during this year’s presidential contest and promoted climate science misinformation, including claims previously debunked by USA TODAY and other fact-checkers.

During his first term in office, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, an international effort to limit global warming through greenhouse gas emissions reductions. He also reversed or weakened domestic rules that limited greenhouse gas emissions – a move one 2020 analysis estimated would result in an extra 1.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere.

Environmental groups slammed Trump’s decision to put Wright in charge of the Energy Department.

“It is not surprising, but still appalling that Trump's pick for Secretary of Energy is a climate-denying Big Oil executive,” Tiernan Sittenfeld, the League of Conservation Voters' senior vice president of government affairs, said in a statement. “With the nomination of Chris Wright, Trump is following through on the $1 billion offer he made to Big Oil at a dinner this spring.”

Sittenfeld was referring to a dinner Trump held with a group of oil executives and lobbyists at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in April. Trump told attendees they should donate $1 billion to his campaign because, if elected, he would roll back President Joe Biden’s environmental rules and policies and stop others from being enacted.

Wright, who has no experience in government, will be primed to continue Trump’s agenda of prioritizing the energy industry over families, communities, consumers and the environment, Sittenfeld said. He vowed that environmental groups would defend environmental laws and recent climate progress.

Trump's pick won praise from Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "President Trump promised bold choices. Chris Wright delivers," said Barrasso, whose panel will hold the confirmation hearings on Wright's nomination.

"He’s an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America’s fracking boom," added Barrasso. "After four years of America last energy policy, our country is desperate for a secretary who understands how important American energy is to our economy and our national security. Mr. Wright will help ensure America remains committed to an all-of-the-above energy policy that puts American families first."

On X, Mike Sommers, the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute also signaled support for Trump's nominee.

"Chris Wright’s experience in the American energy sector gives him an important perspective that will inform his leadership of the Department of Energy," Sommers wrote, adding that his trade organization wants Trump's incoming Energy Department leadership team to change positions from the Biden era on allowing permits for exporting liquified natural gas to countries that do not have free trade agreements with the United States.

Trump's Cabinet is quickly taking shape since the Republican's win earlier this month over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, including the nominations of former Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general, Fox News host Pete Hegeth as Defense secretary, Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of State, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to head the Homeland Security department and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

(This story has been updated with more information and photos.)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump taps oil industry CEO Chris Wright to lead Energy Department