Chris Wright, Trump’s Pick for Energy, to Focus on Reliability, Affordability

President-Elect Donald Trump has chosen a Colorado energy CEO, Chris Wright, who heads up one of the world’s largest fracking operations, Liberty Oilfield Services, to lead the U.S. Department of Energy.

Wright will replace Gov. Jennifer Granholm, the current energy secretary appointed by President Joe Biden in 2020. Wright is a frequent Republican donor and will serve on Trump’s newly formed Council of National Energy, which will be headed up by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick for Secretary of the Interior.

In statements since the election, Trump said his administration will focus on “energy dominance,” with an eye toward driving down costs, winning technology arms races with China and others, and expanding American soft power to end wars across the world.

Where Granholm focused on the Biden administration’s goals of achieving net zero carbon dioxide by 2050, Wright has a history of making climate skeptical remarks, drank fracking liquid on camera in 2019, and said the country is not in the midst of an energy transition.

In a statement after his nomination, Wright said he will further the mission of providing reliable and affordable energy to the U.S. and beyond. Trump called Wright a pioneer of the shale gas revolution in the U.S., which led to a boost in natural gas production via hydraulic fracturing extraction.

In his public statements, Wright says that oil and gas companies are voluntarily cutting their greenhouse gas emissions. At an oil and gas conference in August 2021, he said his industry had achieved the largest gross reduction of any industry thanks to investments in safer pipelines, cutting gas flares and better detection of methane leaks.

At the same conference, Wright made a point of saying “there is no climate crisis.” He says fossil fuels are bettering human lives and says seeking out markets in developing countries will benefit them, eliminating the need to cook meals or heat homes with dirtier fuels.

Wright also sits on the board of Oklo, Inc., a Santa Clara, California-based advanced nuclear energy technology company. Oklo’s Aurora nuclear reactor is a concept fission powerhouse that the DOE gave a permit for testing in 2020. The company said the plant would use recycled low-enriched uranium from breeder reactors to generate power at a commercial level. There is a fuel supply deal struck between Oklo and the Idaho National Laboratory, but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied a combined license application from Oklo in January 2022 because it said it lacked enough information about the reactor.

In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Trump said traditional nuclear power plants are “too big and too complex and too expensive,” pointing to proposed new reactor projects that were canceled during his first administration. He went on to say that small modular nuclear reactors could hold promise for generating clean energy. SMRs remain in the pilot stage in the U.S., although companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon are investing in the technology, seeing them as a potential way to provide reliable electricity to data centers, the growth of which is currently behind a massive increase in electricity need.

Wright is an engineer by training and has degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering. According to a biography from Liberty Energy, Wright founded a hydraulic fracturing company called Pinnacle Technologies in 1992. He moved into shale gas production in 2006, becoming the chair of Stroud Energy, before founding Liberty Resources in 2010. Liberty focused on exploration and extraction in the Bakken oil fields of Montana and North Dakota. Liberty Midstream, another arm of the company, is a provider of midstream services.

Wright is also on the board of EMX Royalty Corp., a royalties payment firm for mineral rights.

This appointment comes at a time of increasing energy demand in the U.S., driven by economic growth in some sectors, new construction and many energy-hungry data centers coming online.

The DOE is charged with overseeing the energy supply in the U.S., research into new energy sources, cleaning up Cold War-era environmental hazards and running the network of 17 National Laboratories. It also maintains the nuclear weapons in the U.S. and works toward nuclear non-proliferation.