What Path Will New Energy Secretary Take?

“The moral case for fossil fuels.”

New York Times:

Chris Wright, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for energy secretary, tried to reassure Democrats at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday that he believed climate change was a “global challenge that we need to solve” and that he would support the development of all forms of energy, including wind and solar power.

The founder and chief executive of Liberty Energy, a fracking firm, Mr. Wright has been a longtime evangelist for fossil fuels like oil and gas. He has frequently shrugged off the risks of global warming, saying in 2023, “There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either.” He has also criticized renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, calling them“unreliable and costly.”

Appearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, however, Mr. Wright struck a more diplomatic tone. In his opening statement, he said his top priority was to “unleash” domestic energy production, including liquefied natural gas and nuclear power. Yet under questioning from Senate Democrats, he suggested that he agreed with many of their priorities as well.

At one point, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, Democrat of Nevada, told Mr. Wright that “the conversation around energy should be balanced and not just focused on fossil fuels.”

“I agree entirely,” Mr. Wright replied, going on to talk about the importance of less-polluting sources of energy like nuclear, geothermal, hydropower, wind and solar power.

The greenhouse gases from burning oil, gas and coal are the main driver of global warming, which made last year the hottest in recorded history.

In one tense exchange, Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, brought up this month’s catastrophic wildfires in Los Angeles. He noted that Mr. Wright had once written in a social media post, “The hype over wildfires is just hype to justify more impoverishment from bad government policies.”

“Do you still believe that wildfires are just hype?” Mr. Padilla asked angrily.

Mr. Wright said that “climate change is a real and global phenomenon” but did not disavow his past writing. Later, however, he clarified that the Energy Department had an important role to play in tackling global warming.

“Do I wish we could make faster progress? Absolutely,” he said. “Are there things we can do, investments together, through the Department of Energy, to accelerate development of new energy technologies that are really the only pathway to address climate change? Absolutely.”

Democrats asked Mr. Wright about proposals by conservative groups to dismantle the agency office that works to expand high-voltage power lines across the country. Those lines can greatly benefit wind and solar power, though experts say they are also critical for avoiding blackouts and keeping electricity prices low.

Mr. Wright sidestepped the question but said that building new transmission lines was “very important.”

Mr. Wright graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and did graduate work on solar energy at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, which created software to measure the motion of fluid beneath the Earth’s surface. The software, which Mr. Wright has called “super nerdy,” helped bring about a commercial shale-gas revolution.

Mr. Wright started Liberty Energy in 2011, and the company has worked with others on geothermal energy and small, modular nuclear reactors.

Mr. Wright holds 2.6 million shares in the company, which are worth more than $55 million based on the current stock price. He has said he intends to step down from Liberty Energy and divest his holdings if confirmed.

While the hearing at several points was interrupted by protesters, who accused Mr. Wright of ignoring climate change while Los Angeles burned, the exchanges were mostly devoid of drama. Republicans, who have a 53-47 majority in the Senate and are confident they can confirm Mr. Wright, praised the nominee’s experience in the energy sector. But even many Democrats seemed to find him acceptable.

At the start, Senator John Hickenlooper, Democrat of Colorado, introduced Mr. Wright, saying the two men had been friendly for years despite often disagreeing on issues like global warming.

“Some people would be surprised that I’m introducing him here,” said Mr. Hickenlooper. “He is indeed an unrestrained enthusiast for fossil fuels in almost every regard.” But, he added, Mr. Wright was “also a scientist who is open to discussion.”

New York Times:

Chris Wright, the fracking magnate and likely next U.S. energy secretary, makes a moral case for fossil fuels.

His position, laid out in speeches and podcasts, is that the world’s poorest people need oil, gas and coal to realize the benefits of modern life that Americans and others in rich nations take for granted. Only fossil fuels, he says, can bring prosperity to millions who still burn wood, dung or charcoal for basic needs like cooking food and heating homes.

“It’s just, I think, naïve or evil, or some combination of the two, to believe they should never have washing machines, they should never have access to electricity, they should never have modern medicine,” Mr. Wright said on the “Mission Zero” podcast last year. “We don’t want that to happen. And we simply don’t have meaningful substitutes for oil, gas and coal today.”

The argument offered by Mr. Wright, who has been chosen by President-elect Donald J. Trump to run the Energy Department, ignores the fact that wind, solar and other renewable energy are cleaner and increasingly cheaper than fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency says clean energy is coming online globally at an “unprecedented rate” and will play a significant role in the future. In some places, renewable energy has been able to displace fossil fuels.