Chris Wright, President Donald J. Trump's pick to head the Department of Energy, accepted the job in his first meeting with past and future presidents.
Wright, the founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, a Colorado-based hydraulic fracturing services company, was among the roughly 20 people Trump gathered at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in April. He was an oil and gas executive. Mr. Wright had never met Mr. Trump before, but he said two officials who were present made strong claims about fossil fuels that caught Mr. Trump's attention.
“Would you like to be my energy secretary?” Trump asked jokingly, according to attendees. But days after the election, Trump selected Wright to lead the agency.
Wright will appear before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday. The confirmation hearing for Mr. Trump's pick to run the government agency central to his plan to increase production and use of coal, oil and gas is the first of three this week. becomes.
Mr. Wright has been active as an evangelist for that purpose. In his podcasts and speeches, he frequently makes moral arguments about fossil fuels, arguing that the world's poorest people need oil and gas to enjoy the benefits of modern life.
Researchers and activists say he is distorting climate science. For example, in a podcast last year, Wright inaccurately claimed that the United Nations' top scientific agency had found that climate change will “become a slower, more modest effect two or three generations from now.”
In fact, the scientific body Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recommended that countries make an immediate and radical transition away from fossil fuels to prevent the planet from exceeding global warming thresholds.
Wright's spokeswoman, Meg Bloomgren, said in a statement that Wright has spent her career focused on improving lives, noting that “climate change is real and America's constant “It also involves researching and determining that the problem is one that must be solved with innovation and technological solutions.” ”
Democrats gave mixed impressions of Wright on Tuesday.
Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper described him as smart and thoughtful on energy issues, but said he remains concerned about how Wright and other Cabinet choices will address climate change. He said he was holding her.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said Trump's picks “are here to plunder the treasury and pollute public space.”
Attendees said the Mar-a-Lago event was a day in which Mr. Trump asked oil industry leaders to raise $1 billion for his campaign and vowed that companies would be freed if they repeal climate change regulations. He pointed out that it was a place that promised savings that far exceeded that amount. “Mr. Trump's major donors want something in return,” the White House said.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who heads the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the hearing will be an opportunity to discuss what he calls the Biden administration's energy policy failures.
“Rising energy prices are hurting Americans, and restrictive policies that limit access to public lands and critical resources will prioritize domestic energy production and restore confidence in public land management,” Lee said. That is essential.”
Mr. Lee's committee will hear Thursday from former North Dakota Gov. Douglas J. Burgum, a Republican who was selected by Mr. Trump to serve at the Interior Department. Also on Thursday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will consider selecting former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin of Long Island to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
If confirmed as Secretary of Energy, Wright would help oversee the approval of a liquefied gas export terminal that the Biden administration had sought to delay, angering Republicans.
Mr. Wright graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and did graduate work in solar energy at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies to create software that measures the movement of fluids beneath the earth's surface. This software helped enable the commercial shale gas revolution.
Wright founded Liberty Energy in 2011, and the company has worked with other companies to develop geothermal energy and small modular nuclear reactors.
Mr. Wright owns 2.6 million shares of the company's stock, worth more than $55 million based on the current stock price. A recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission lists his compensation last year at $5.6 million.
Mr. Wright filed a separate document with the SEC after Mr. Trump nominated him to be secretary of energy, indicating his intention to resign from Liberty Energy. A transition official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because financial disclosures have not yet been made public, said Mr. Wright intended to sell his stake once confirmed.
Democrats sought to delay Wright's hearing, saying they had not received his financial disclosure report, a document typically released before the confirmation process. Republicans refused to postpone the hearing.
Senate officials said Wright's disclosure was released to lawmakers late Tuesday but has not yet been published online by the Office of Government Ethics.
