November 19, 2024 12:01 PM UTC

Meet Your New Energy Secretary, Colorado Petro-Evangelist Chris Wright

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: 9NEWS’ Kyle Clark profiles Chris Wright’s “fracking evangelist” views such as the “fearmongering” of linking climate change to extreme weather events, the warm fuzzy upside of global warming, the non-existence of a climate “crisis” of any kind, and other boardroom bromides you’ll be excited to hear from the next Secretary of Energy:

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Among the increasingly scandalous clown car of nominees announced by incoming President re-elect Donald Trump is one among them being hailed, at least by his local boosters, as a “pragmatic problem solver” pick with bipartisan support–assuming the Senate even gets to vote on Trump’s nominees, which as of this writing is not guaranteed. But the choice of Denver-based fracking executive Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy, for those who have followed his record as the director of the politically hyperactive drilling company Liberty Energy, will set the nation on a course to curtail ongoing attempts to mitigate climate change in favor of what we can only describe as a religious devotion to fossil fuels. AP’s Matthew Daly:

Fossil fuel executive Chris Wright, Donald Trump’s choice for Energy secretary, is a strong supporter of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of the president-elect’s quest for U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market.

Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change, and he could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.

CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, he describes himself as “a tech nerd turned entrepreneur” and promotes the idea that more fossil fuel production can lift people out of poverty around the globe.

So, we’re not just talking about any oil and gas executive. As the founder of Pinnacle Technologies, since acquired by energy giant Halliburton, Wright helped launch the fracking “revolution” that greatly expanded access to oil and natural gas resources at the expense of scarring the American West with toxic drilling sites. Nobody in MAGA world would dare admit it, but the United States reached record levels of oil production under President Joe Biden with fracking playing a major role in the increase. The difference between the two is that while the Biden administration acknowledged the need to transition away from fossil fuels to address climate change, Wright wants to increase dependence on fossil fuels and abandon the transition to renewables altogether. Wright simply denies the existence of either:

“There is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either,” Wright said. [Pols emphasis]

Locals may recall a public relations campaign waged by Wright’s Liberty Energy in 2021 against the outdoor clothing manufacturer North Face after the company declined to embroider an oil and gas company’s logo on an order of jackets. While it’s true that most outdoor wear these days is made from plastic, if all we did with fossil fuels was make durable goods from them…well, we’d still have a problem, but it would be a very different kind of problem than the problem created by burning fossil fuels.

Wright’s wholesale denial of the increasingly urgent climate crisis comes as a shock to any voter who prioritized the issue of climate change in the last election. But along with a host of other important issues thrown out with the proverbial bathwater, a majority of voters simply didn’t prioritize climate change when they voted for Donald Trump. We can anticipate the result, a swift rollback of regulations and a brief sugar high for the economy, with the continuing and accelerating effects of climate change left to not-too-future administrations to address. For the next four years, even though there has been little to no restraint on the growth of energy production under the current administration, “drill baby drill” will be not just a slogan, but a religious creed. The 180-degree policy about-face this represents, and the potential long-term consequences, cannot be overstated.

The patron saint of fracking will call the shots on American energy now–and for that to be one of Trump’s less controversial picks is truly remarkable.