Trump taps fracking CEO Chris Wright for Energy secretary

President-elect Trump on Saturday announced he would nominate Chris Wright, a donor and fracking company leader, to serve as his Energy secretary.

“Chris has been a leading technologist and entrepreneur in Energy. He has worked in Nuclear, Solar, Geothermal, and Oil and Gas,” Trump said in a statement announcing the pick. “Most significantly, Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American Shale Revolution that fueled American Energy Independence, and transformed the Global Energy Markets and Geopolitics.”

Wright, a Trump donor, is the CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking and oilfield services company. Wright will require Senate confirmation to lead the Department of Energy. 

In addition to that role, Trump said Wright would serve on a newly formed Council of National Energy being led by his nominee for Interior secretary, Doug Burgum.

That council will focus on cutting regulations and increasing investments to ramp up oil and gas production. Trump has pledged to increase drilling upon taking office, even as the U.S. set records for oil production under the Biden administration, and he has signaled support for the fracking industry.

The Energy Department oversees oil and gas production and exports, as well as the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

Fracking, which is short for hydraulic fracturing, is an oil and gas extraction technique that kicked off the “shale revolution” greatly boosting companies’ energy production potential and helping to make the U.S. the world’s top producer of oil and gas.

 The technology is controversial however, because of oil and gas’s contribution to climate change, as well as fracking’s links to earthquakes and childhood cancers. 

Trump ally and donor Harold Hamm, an energy executive,  recently told publication Hart Energy that Wright was his top choice for energy secretary. 

Rachel Frazin contributed