2024-11-17 02:55:48
US President-elect Donald Trump picked oil industry CEO Chris Wright to head the Energy Department, paving the way for a vocal critic of Biden administration efforts to combat climate change to run the department.
If confirmed by the Senate, Wright is expected to be a key opponent of efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions linked to fossil fuel use, which contribute to global warming and extreme weather. Wright’s name for the job was recommended by Harold Hamm, the oil executive who has advised Trump on energy issues.
On his social media platform, Truth Social, Donald Trump described Chris Wright as a “leading technologist and entrepreneur in energy.”
“He has worked in nuclear, solar, geothermal, and oil and gas. Most significantly, Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American Shale Revolution that fuelled American energy independence and transformed the global energy markets and geopolitics,” Trump said in an official statement.
WHO IS CHRIS WRIGHT?
Chris Wright is the founder, CEO, and Chairman of Liberty Energy, a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. He is known for his work across various energy sectors, including oil, gas, nuclear, solar, and geothermal.
Chris began his journey in energy after studying mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and pursuing further studies at UC Berkeley and MIT. He founded Pinnacle Technologies, a firm that developed hydraulic fracture mapping, instrumental in launching commercial shale gas production in the 1990s. He also led Stroud Energy and later founded Liberty Resources and Liberty Midstream Solutions.
Beyond his corporate roles, Chris sits on the boards of several companies and nonprofit organisations. He lives in Colorado with his wife, Liz, and enjoys skiing, cycling, climbing, and outdoor activities. He is also a father and grandfather.
CRTIC OF POLICIES TO CURB CLIMATE CHANGE
Wright has been a vocal critic of several government efforts to curb climate change, including the Department of Energy’s goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
In a video posted to LinkedIn 2023, Wright rubbished the claims of any climate crisis, saying that “we’re not in the midst of an energy transition.”
“The only thing resembling a crisis with respect to climate change is the regressive opportunity-squelching policies justified in the name of climate change,” he added.
A 2021 study in Environmental Research Letters found that 99 percent of climate scientists agree that human activity is driving global warming and climate change, ABC News reported.
As a vocal critic of climate change, Wright said that “there is no such thing as clean energy or dirty energy.”
However, the government said that clean energy, including solar and wind, has little or zero carbon emissions. The greenhouse gases, as per the government, are responsible for global warming.
While Wright acknowledges climate change but claims that efforts to address it are misguided and alarmist. He has dismissed terms like climate crisis, energy transition, and clean energy as “destructive deceptions” and “nonsense.”
He said that the benefits of increased energy consumption outweigh any harm from climate change and denies that events like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods have become more severe due to it.
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