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Wright confirmed with bipartisan support, 59-38 vote

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Wright prioritizes expanding domestic energy production

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Expected to dismantle Biden's climate policies, boost

fossil

fuel infrastructure

By Timothy Gardner

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, with seven Democrats and one

Independent, who caucuses with Democrats, crossing the aisle.

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 whose budget is around

$50 billion, around half of which goes toward maintaining 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

supercomputing.

In his nomination hearing, Wright said his first priority is to

expand domestic energy production including liquefied natural

gas, a super-chilled exportable form of the fuel, and nuclear

energy.

The U.S. became the world's top LNG exporter in 2023 and

shipments could double before the end of the decade.

Wright and Lee Zeldin, the head of the Environmental Protection

Agency, are expected to dismantle aspects of former President

Joe Biden's climate policies and push for more fossil fuel

infrastructure including gas pipelines and power plants.

Wright also said in his hearing that deadly wildfires that

devastated Los Angeles are "heartbreaking," but he stood by his

comments on social media in 2023 that "hype over wildfires is

just hype to justify" policies to curb climate change.

He is expected to play a big role in a new national energy

dominance council, to be led by former North Dakota Governor

Doug Burgum, who is expected to be confirmed by the Senate to

head the Department of the Interior. The council is expected to

seek policies to maximize output of oil and gas, though the U.S.

is already the world's largest producer of both, and it is

unclear how much more energy companies want to drill on federal

lands.

Wright will also be tasked with managing the Strategic Petroleum

Reserve, the world's largest crude oil stockpile. Biden sold

more than 180 million barrels, a record amount, from the reserve

in 2022 to balance rising gasoline prices after Russia invaded

Ukraine.

The sale sank the reserve to its lowest level in 40 years.

Trump has pledged to fill the SPR to the top, but doing so will

require Congress to appropriate funds. Filling it quickly could

lead to higher oil prices.

Like his predecessor, Jennifer Granholm, Wright says he

believes geothermal power has a lot of potential to provide the

U.S. with emissions-free energy by tapping heat below the

ground.

Geothermal projects, however, will need greater access to

power transmission lines. Congress has failed to pass permitting

legislation to fund new transmission lines that are needed for

geothermal and other renewable energy projects.

Like Granholm, Wright also supports expanding nuclear power.

He was a board member of small modular reactor startup Oklo ( OKLO )

, which has not yet built a commercial plant.

Wright will likely also be tasked with helping the U.S. build

out a uranium fuel supply chain, after Biden signed a ban on

imports of enriched uranium from Russia.