US president-elect Donald Trump has selected a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive to serve as energy secretary in his second administration.
Chris Wright, the chief executive of oilfield services company Liberty Energy, is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve US “energy dominance” in the global market.
Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.
Wright also has criticised what he calls a “top-down” approach to climate by liberal and left-wing groups and said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight”.
Consideration of Wright to head the administration’s energy department won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm.
Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term.
Hamm helped organise an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where industry leaders and lobbyists were reportedly asked to donate $US1 billion ($A1.5 billion) dollars to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation Trump would curtail environmental regulations if re-elected.
The Energy Department is responsible for advancing the energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States.
Climate experts, environmental organizations and advocacy groups are reacting to Donald Trump’s cabinet picks, which include climate deniers, fossil fuel advocates and people with no political experience.
Doug Burgum:
The president-elect on Friday announced he is nominating Republican governor Doug Burgum as the interior secretary and “energy czar.” The new position was created to carry out the administration’s sweeping plans to scale back energy and climate rules implemented under President Joe Biden and boost oil and gas production on millions of acres of federal lands nationwide, including national parks and wildlife refuges.
Burgum was elected in 2016 as the governor of North Dakota, the third largest oil and natural gas producer in the US, and made oil and natural gas production a priority.
In a statement, Trump said that the proposed National Energy Council that Burgum will helm “will consist of all Departments and Agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of ALL forms of American Energy.”
The nomination has prompted swift backlash from environmental advocacy groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, and the Center for Western Priorities.
The Sierra Club, the country’s largest non-profit environmental organization, said Burgum’s ties with the fossil fuel industry “run deep” and he has “long advocated for rolling back critical environmental safeguards in order to let polluters profit.”
“[I]f confirmed to this position, he will surely continue Donald Trump’s efforts to sell out our public lands to his polluter pals. Our lands are our nation’s greatest treasure, and the interior department is charged with their protection,” the organization said in a statement.
“Doug Burgum comes from an oil state, but North Dakota is not a public lands state. His cozy relationship with oil billionaires may endear him to Donald Trump, but he has no experience that qualifies him to oversee the management of 20 percent of America’s lands,” said Center for Western Priorities’ Executive Director Jennifer Rokala.
“Running the Interior department requires someone who can find balance between recreation, conservation, hunting, ranching, mining, and—yes—oil drilling. If Doug Burgum tries to turn America’s public lands into an even bigger cash cow for the oil and gas industry, or tries to shrink America’s parks and national monuments, he’ll quickly discover he’s on the wrong side of history,” Rokala added.
In a video posted on LinkedIn last year, Wright, who is the CEO of fracking company Liberty Energy and has no political experience, denied that there is a climate crisis or that we are in the midst of an energy transition .
Chris Wright
“Carbon dioxide does indeed absorb infrared radiation, contributing to warming,” Wright said. “But calling carbon dioxide ‘pollution’ is like calling out water and oxygen, the other two irreplaceable molecules for life on earth,” he said in the video.
Several environmental advocates have condemned Trump’s choice. Jackie Wong, senior vice president for climate and energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, called Wright’s nomination a “disastrous mistake,” describing him as “a champion of dirty fossil fuels.”
“The Energy Department should be doing all it can to develop and expand the energy sources of the 21st century, not trying to promote the dirty fuels of the last century. Given the devastating impacts of climate-fuelled disasters, DOE’s core mission of researching and promoting cleaner energy solutions is more important now than ever,” Wong said.