President-elect Donald Trump announced that Chris Wright, the CEO and founder of Liberty Energy, will lead the Department of Energy in his new administration.
“I am thrilled to announce that Chris Wright will be joining my Administration as both United States Secretary of Energy, and Member of the newly formed Council of National Energy,” Trump said in a statement released Saturday.
The newly-elected president wrote that Wright “has been a leading technologist and entrepreneur in Energy.”
“He has worked in Nuclear, Solar, Geothermal, and Oil and Gas,” Trump’s statement read. “Most significantly, Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American Shale Revolution that fueled American Energy Independence, and transformed the Global Energy Markets and Geopolitics.”
According to Liberty Energy’s website, Wright graduated from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering. He also completed graduate work in electrical engineering at University of California, Berkeley and MIT.
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“[Wright] is a self-described tech nerd turned entrepreneur and a dedicated humanitarian on a mission to better human lives by expanding access to abundant, affordable, and reliable energy,” the company’s website reads.
The key Cabinet position announcement comes after Trump made independent energy and bolstering oil and gas production a cornerstone of his campaign. While on the campaign trail, Trump pledged to expand fracking and lift a pause on liquefied natural gas exports, which marks a sharp contrast with his predecessor.
“They annihilated your steel mills, decimated your coal jobs, assaulted your oil and gas jobs and sold off your manufacturing jobs to China and other foreign nations all over the world,” Trump said of the Biden administration during a campaign event in Pennsylvania last month.
The president-elect has also vowed to use his second White House term to re-exit the Paris climate accord, undo strict emissions standards for vehicles and power plants, and bolster production of U.S. oil and gas, including through fracking.
Trump’s nominees and administration picks during his second administration are being publicly announced at a much faster pace than during his first administration in 2016, which the transition team attributed to Trump’s commitment to putting “America first.”
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“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail — and his Cabinet picks reflect his priority to put America First. President Trump will continue to appoint highly qualified men and women who have the talent, experience and necessary skill sets to Make America Great Again,” Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital when asked about Trump’s speedy roll-out of Cabinet picks.
Under his first administration, Trump tapped former Texas Gov. Rick Perry for the position, before Dan Brouillette took the position over in 2019. Trump did not announce his choice of Perry until Dec. 14, 2016, putting him ahead of his first term’s nomination process.
On the energy front, Trump also reportedly plans to install an “energy czar” to scale back energy and climate regulations implemented under the Biden administration, and also already named former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch and Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.
