President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the US Department of Energy (DOE), oil executive Chris Wright, said today he supports expanded LNG production and an "evolution" in energy systems to address climate change.
Wright, the chief executive of oil services company Liberty Energy, told lawmakers he would focus on trying to "unleash American energy at home and abroad" and to restore "energy dominance" if confirmed to the position.Wright also said that DOE should support innovation and technology, and revisit federal policies that make it "too easy to stop projects" and very hard to begin them.
"Previous administrations have viewed energy as a liability instead of the immense national asset that it is," Wright said at a confirmation hearing with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "To compete globally, we must expand energy production, including commercial nuclear and liquified natural gas, and cut the cost of energy for Americans."
Trump, after being sworn in on 20 January, is expected to quickly order DOE to lift a pause on licensing of new LNG export facilities that President Joe Biden imposed nearly a year ago. DOE is also responsible for managing the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which currently holds 394mn bl of crude, and oversees a vast portfolio of loans and grants for clean energy projects, including an $8bn program intended to support the development of new hubs for clean hydrogen.
Wright did not offer in-depth comments on the timeline for issuing licenses to proposed LNG export terminals, which Trump has pledged to approve on his "very first day back." But Wright committed he would consider how licensing more LNG export capacity could affect US natural gas prices, which could increase by 31pc by 2050 if LNG exports are "unconstrained", a study from President Joe Biden's administration found.
Democratic lawmakers at the hearing raised concerns about Wright's past comments that downplayed the risks of climate change. US senator Alex Padilla (D-California), whose state is dealing with tens of billions of dollars in damage from ongoing wildfires, cited a LinkedIn post in 2023 in which Wright said alarm about wildfires raging in Canada at the time were simply "hype to justify impoverishment from bad government policies."
Wright, who wrote in a separate LinkedIn post that there is no "climate crisis", said he stood by his 2023 comments on the wildfires. Wright said climate change is a "real and global phenomenon", and that DOE has a role to play by supporting progress in technologies such as nuclear, solar, geothermal and battery storage.
"It is a real issue," Write said. "It's a challenging issue, and the solution to climate change is to evolve our energy system."
Wright is widely expected to win confirmation in the Senate, where Republicans will have a 53-47 majority once Ohio governor Mike DeWine (R) fills the seat recently vacated by US vice president-elect JD Vance. Trump has said Wright will also serve on his newly created Council of National Energy, which will oversee policies across the federal government related to energy.
