Trump selects climate crisis denier oil executive Chris Wright as energy secretary

President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday helium has selected Chris Wright, an lipid and state manufacture executive, to pb the Department of Energy successful his upcoming administration.

Wright, the laminitis and CEO of Liberty Energy, a Denver-based oilfield work company, is simply a staunch defender of fracking and fossil substance use who has ne'er served successful government.

Last year, Wright took to societal media to speech astir immoderate “deceptive and destructive” words and phrases radical usage erstwhile discussing vigor and climate, including “climate crisis,” “carbon pollution” and “clean [and] soiled energy.”

“There is nary clime crisis and we’re not successful the midst of an vigor modulation either,” helium said successful a video posted connected his LinkedIn page. “Humans and each analyzable beingness connected world is simply intolerable without c dioxide. Hence the word c contamination is outrageous.”

If confirmed by the Senate, the Republican donor and fundraiser could instrumentality speedy enactment to restart the department’s issuance of approvals for earthy state exports, which was paused by the Biden medication earlier this year.

“As Secretary of Energy, Chris volition beryllium a cardinal leader, driving innovation, cutting reddish tape, and ushering successful a caller ‘Golden Age of American Prosperity and Global Peace,’” Trump said successful an announcement shared connected his Truth Social level connected Saturday.

In summation to starring the Energy Department Wright volition service alongside Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum connected the caller National Energy Council — which “will oversee the way to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE by cutting reddish tape, enhancing backstage assemblage investments crossed each sectors of the Economy, and by focusing connected INNOVATION implicit longstanding, but wholly unnecessary, regulation,” Trump wrote.

Saturday’s announcement was instantly criticized by the nation’s largest grassroots biology organization.

“Not since Donald Trump’s astir caller furniture prime has a nominee ever been truthful utterly unqualified for the job,” Ben Jealous, enforcement manager of the Sierra Club, said successful a statement.

“Chris Wright is simply a climate denier who has profited disconnected of polluting our communities and endangering our wellness and future,” helium added, vowing to bash “all we tin do” to halt Wright and his “pro-polluter agenda.”

With News Wire Services