Donald Trump Taps Coloradan Chris Wright as Energy Secretary

Once-and-future president Donald Trump just announced that Coloradan Chris Wright, a proponent of fracking who denies that there's a climate crisis, will be joining his administration as both Secretary of Energy and a member of the newly formed Council of National Energy.

During Trump's rally in Aurora in October, he promised that on his first day back in office, not only would he "begin the task of deporting every single alien immigrant...but we're also going to drill, baby, drill."

Wright has the experience and inclination to do just that. He's the founder, chief executive officer and chairman of Liberty Energy; the Western Energy Alliance named him Wildcatter of the Year in 2022. A native Coloradan, he's a "bold advocate who brings rational thought to the energy dialogue," according to the Trump announcement. "Chris has had multiple appearances on network TV, documentaries, and podcasts. Chris’ #ThankYouNorthFace campaign went viral with over 5 million views, sparking a sober discussion on the multiple efficient uses of oil and gas in everyday products."

About that: When North Face refused to make a co-branded jacket with Texas-based Innovex because it’s an oil and gas company, Wright took action on behalf of a Liberty competitor, buying billboards to note North Face's dependence on the oil and gas industry.

Here's a video he made:


Wright was on a panel at a Colorado energy confab shortly after the North Face campaign, where he made another provocative pronouncement: “There. Is. No. Climate. Crisis."

“The energy dialogue getting divorced from reality has massive, massive costs,” he told the room. “One that hits close to home: Twenty percent of children report having nightmares about climate change when they go to sleep. I speak in schools all the time; children have way less interest in going into science or technical fields, because what they see is: Science is ‘Thou shall adopt the alarmist doctrine or you will be called a denier and shunned.’”

In another video posted on LinkedIn last year, Wright pronounced that “there is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition, either. We have seen no increase in the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts or floods despite endless fearmongering of the media, politicians and activists. The only thing resembling a crisis with respect to climate change is the regressive, opportunity-squelching policies justified in the name of climate change.”

Wright has worked with Doug Burgum, the North Dakota governor who's been nominated as Interior Secretary and will head the Council of National Energy, which "will consist of all Departments and Agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of ALL forms of American Energy," according to the Trump announcement. "This Council will oversee the path to U.S. ENERGY DOMINANCE by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the Economy, and by focusing on INNOVATION over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation. This team will drive U.S. Energy Dominance, which will drive down Inflation, win the A.I. arms race with China (and others), and expand American Diplomatic Power to end Wars all across the World."

“Picking someone like Chris Wright is a clear sign that Trump wants to turn the U.S. into a pariah petrostate,” says Jean Su, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's energy justice program. “He's damning frontline communities and our planet to climate hell just to pad the already bloated pockets of fossil fuel tycoons. The rest of the world will be horrified by these efforts to actually speed up climate change. They should reject American fracked exports and instead embrace the renewable future we desperately need.”

The country's first energy secretary was John Love, who was governor of Colorado when chosen for the new position by President Richard Nixon in 1973. He resigned five months later, during the final days of the Nixon administration.