Nov. 16 (UPI) — President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday announced Denver-based oil executive Chris Wright as his choice for to head the Department of Energy.
Wright is the CEO of oil fracking and natural gas firm Liberty Energy and has questioned the role of fossil fuels in the Earth’s changing climate and related weather events.
“Chris has been a leading technologist and entrepreneur in energy,” Trump said in a statement announcing Wright’s appointment.
“He has worked in nuclear, solar, geothermal and oil and gas,” Trump said. “Most significantly, Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American shale revolution that fueled American energy independence.”
Wright also is a Republican fundraiser and would also be a member of the Trump’s proposed Council of National Energy, to be comprised of all federal agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation of energy.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, whom Trump has nominated as Interior Department secretary, would chair the Council of National Energy.
While Wright is a noted skeptic of human-caused climate change, he has acknowledged a connection between fossil fuel emissions and climate change but doubts any connections with extreme weather events, according to a video he posted on the LinkedIn social media platform last year.
He also has said a decade-long transition away from fossil fuels as proposed by President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration is unrealistic.