Donald Trump’s pick for energy secretary called net zero a “sinister goal” and was once censored by LinkedIn for posting a video of his views on climate policy.
Chris Wright, an oil executive and staunch defender of fossil fuels, is also known for drinking fracking fluid that includes bleach on camera to prove it is safe.
Mr Wright, the founder and chief executive of Denver-based Liberty Energy, is expected to spearhead Mr Trump’s “drill baby drill” plans to increase oil and gas production and seek new ways to boost energy.
A climate sceptic who has filed lawsuits opposing climate disclosure rules, Mr Wright has called climate activists alarmist and has likened efforts by Democrats to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism.
In 2019, he made headlines when he drank a fracking fluid cocktail containing a collection of chemicals, which he knocked back with colleagues after toasting the “long lives and healthier lives of billions of people all around the world from oil and gas”.
Last year, he was briefly censored by LinkedIn for posting a video in which he said: “There is no climate crisis and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.”
‘Destructive deceptions’
During the 12-minute video, he said that the terms climate crisis, energy transition, carbon pollution, clean energy and dirty energy are all “destructive deceptions” that cause children anxiety.
Mr Wright went on to say that “we have seen no increase in the frequency of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts or floods” as a result of climate change – a claim that is widely disputed.
The social media platform took the video down, claiming it violated its policy on spam and scams, before restoring it the next day, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Mr Wright, who does not have any political experience, has written extensively on the need for more fossil fuel production to lift people out of poverty.
He has stood out among oil and gas executives for his confrontational, freewheeling style.
In a keynote address to oil and gas industry figures earlier this year, Mr Wright has said “there’s no such thing as renewable energy”, adding that the target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 is “sinister”.
“Net zero 2050: zero chance of this happening, but it’s actually a sinister goal because we spend an insane amount of money pretending we’re going to actually achieve this,” he said.
He added that the net result has been to “make energy more expensive, less reliable, and impoverish people”.
Expansion of nuclear power
As energy secretary, Mr Wright would oversee US energy diplomacy, administer petroleum reserves – which Mr Trump has said he wants to replenish – and run programmes to advance new energy technologies.
Mr Wright will also probably be involved in the expansion of nuclear power, an energy source that is popular with both Republicans and Democrats, as well as marshalling the country’s ageing nuclear weapons complex, waste disposal and 17 national labs.
His predecessor, Jennifer Granholm, is a supporter of electric vehicles, emerging energy sources like geothermal power and a backer of carbon-free wind, solar and nuclear energy.
Announcing his nomination, the president-elect said that Mr Wright “has been a leading technologist and entrepreneur in energy”. As energy secretary, he “will be a key leader, driving innovation, cutting red tape, and ushering in a new “golden age of American prosperity and global peace,’” Mr Trump continued.
A self-described tech nerd, Mr Wright studied engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in 2011 founded Liberty, now a $2.8 billion company that is heavily involved in fracking for extracting shale gas.
Mr Wright, whose compensation in 2021 was $4.6 million, has railed against cautious executives, saying he thinks that is a mistake in regards to climate issues.
“They want to be respected business leaders. They don’t want to be told they’re lying, or [that] they’re spreading misinformation,” Mr Wright told the Wall Street Journal. “I think we should speak more honestly, and less and less appeasement-oriented.”
Casting himself as a straight talker, Mr Wright has repeatedly called out a perceived lack of transparency among climate scientists and politicians.
“We want new energies, but let’s just be honest, let’s call them alternative energies or new energies, don’t call them clean energy because there’s no such thing as clean energy or dirty energy.
“All energy sources have different trade-offs, let’s just be honest about that.”