Chris Wright, CEO of Liberty Energy, has long been known as one of the oil and gas industry’s brightest minds and most innovative thinkers. It should come as no surprise, then, that his nomination by President-elect Donald Trump to be the country’s next secretary of Energy was met with broad approval from the industry and political world alike.
“President Trump’s selection of Mr. Chris Wright as secretary of Energy is a fantastic choice,” said Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), who led a congressional delegation to the just-completed COP29 conference in Azerbaijan. “I was proud to host Mr. Wright at the very first RSC House Energy Action Team Member Meeting in early 2023. Mr. Wright deeply understands the undeniable link between energy security and national security, the importance of reliable energy infrastructure, and how overregulation has killed innovation.”
Innovation has been a specialty of Wright’s throughout his career in energy, as he has sought to create real-world solutions to help his customers cut emissions from their drilling and fracking operations and lessen the industry’s overall environmental impact. Wright has also become one of the most outspoken advocates for not just his company but the industry as a whole since his founding of Liberty Energy in 2011. Those efforts have paved the way for fellow CEOs and industry leaders to also become more forceful defenders of their industry.
Among the most effective of those is Tim Stewart, President of the U.S. Oil & Gas Association. As part of his job, Stewart has become an increasingly frequent presence on television and radio and operates one of the most entertaining energy-focused X accounts. Unsurprisingly, Stewart was happy to learn of Wright’s nomination.
“Chris Wright is a great fit to lead the Department of Energy,” Stewart told me. “One would be wrong to view him as an oil-and-gas guy. He is an energy disrupter- innovator who is also a small modular reactor expert and a critical minerals and supply chain expert. And in his spare time, he happened to usher in the shale oil and gas revolution which changed U.S. history. The perfect pick who will turn the department upside down in a very good way.”
Highly regarded petroleum economist Karr Ingham, who also serves as president of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, echoes Stewart’s sentiments, saying: “What a fantastic pick for secretary of Energy. Not simply because he’s an oil and gas guy, but because he is truly an expert on energy. He understands the importance of abundant, reliable, affordable energy, especially to those who have not yet been blessed with it.”
Ingham touches on a key aspect of Wright’s philosophy about addressing climate change, which he lays out in a book published by Liberty Energy titled “Bettering Human Lives.” Far from the “climate denier” smear his opponents like to target him with, Wright has always said climate change is a real problem that should be addressed. But he takes issue with the top-down, subsidy-and-mandate-driven approach taken by the Biden administration and western globalists, which even many advocates admitted at COP29 is failing.
Instead, Wright advocates for a bottom-up approach which leverages the world’s energy minerals abundance, combined with advanced nuclear technologies to help impoverished nations rise out of energy poverty and power the real solutions to lowering emissions. As he says in the book, “Zero Energy Poverty by 2050 is a superior goal compared to Net Zero 2050.”
It is an approach with which Tom Pyle, president of the D.C.-based think tank Institute for Energy Research agrees. “Chris Wright stands out as someone unapologetically committed to the truth about the essential role that affordable and reliable energy plays in improving society,” Pyle said. “Wright’s clear and steadfast defense of oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy offers a welcome counterpoint to the ‘all of the above’ narrative. His approach challenges conventional thinking while remaining firmly rooted in real-world solutions.”
It is wrong-headed to think the advent of a second Trump presidency will mean an abandonment of the pursuit of emissions goals. Instead, it will mean a sea change in strategic direction, a change of course led by innovative minds like Chris Wright.
David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
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