WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Monday

confirmed Chris Wright, a fracking executive, to be President

Donald Trump's energy secretary.

The vote was 59-38.

Wright, 60, the CEO of Liberty Energy since 2011

has said he will step down from the company once confirmed. He

wrote in a Liberty report last year he believes human-caused

climate change is real, but that its hazards are "distant and

uncertain." He has also said that top-down governmental policies

to curb it are destined to fail.

Wright will be in charge of an agency that has about a $50

billion budget with about half of that going to maintain the

country's nuclear weapons stockpile.

He will also be in charge of the department's 17 national

labs that cover everything from research fusion energy to

super-computing.