President-elect Donald Trump said Nov. 18 he has tapped Liberty Energy founder and CEO Chris Wright to be the nation’s next energy secretary and a member of the newly formed Council of National Energy.
Liberty Energy, an oil and gas company with a focus on shale exploration, issued a statement following Trump’s announcement, saying the board plans to appoint William Kimble as chairman and Ron Gusek as CEO to succeed Wright.
In a press release, Trump said Wright, if confirmed by U.S. Senate, “will be a key leader, driving innovation, cutting red tape and ushering in a new ‘Golden Age of American Prosperity and Global Peace.’”
He also described Wright as a leader of the American shale revolution that drove U.S. energy independence and transformed global energy markets.
Wright would succeed Jennifer Granholm as energy secretary. Granholm told reporters at the COP29 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan she was hopeful that electric vehicle tax credits and other decarbonization efforts would remain intact under the new administration, according to an S&P Global report.
Trump also said he would appoint North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as both Secretary of the Interior and chairman of the National Energy Council. Trump said the National Energy Council will consist of all departments and agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation of all forms of energy in the U.S.
“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,” Trump said in a news release. “With U.S. energy dominance, we 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.”
Trump added that the “radical left’s war on American Energy has hurt our allies by forcing them to buy from our adversaries, who in turn use those profits to fund wars and terror.”
