(Oil Price) – President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, pledged on Wednesday to help unleash a major expansion in U.S. domestic energy production, including oil, LNG, and nuclear power.
“The security of our nation begins with energy,” Wright said in remarks prepared for his confirmation hearing at the Energy and Natural Resources Committee today.
“Previous administrations have viewed energy as a liability instead of the immense national asset that it is,” said Wright, who is the founder and CEO of fracking services company Liberty Energy.
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Energy, Chris Wright, pledged on Wednesday to help unleash a major expansion in U.S. domestic energy production, including oil, LNG, and nuclear power.
“The security of our nation begins with energy,” Wright said in remarks prepared for his confirmation hearing at the Energy and Natural Resources Committee today.
“Previous administrations have viewed energy as a liability instead of the immense national asset that it is,” said Wright, who is the founder and CEO of fracking services company Liberty Energy.
Wright, who advocates for “better human lives by expanding access to abundant, affordable, and reliable energy,” does not have political experience.
Wright is a vocal critic of the energy transition as envisaged by most Western governments to date, instead calling for energy realism and prioritizing the supply security and affordability of energy rather than its emission footprint.
“There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either,” Wright has said in one of a series of video presentations he has posted on LinkedIn, challenging the transition narrative and urging a more realistic approach to energy.
In remarks for the confirmation hearing, seen by Bloomberg, Wright is expected to testify that his first priority as Secretary of Energy would be to “unleash American energy at home and abroad to restore energy dominance.”
“To compete globally, we must expand energy production, including commercial nuclear and liquefied natural gas, and cut the cost of energy,” Wright says.
Team Trump is preparing to make sweeping changes to the U.S. energy sector on day one. Boosting U.S. oil and gas drilling and accelerating permits for domestic energy infrastructure and LNG exports are expected to be top priorities for the new administration. The transition team of the incoming U.S. President is already drafting an energy package to expand domestic oil and gas drilling on federal lands and offshore lease sales, in addition to expediting LNG export permits.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
