*

Wright believes fossil fuels are key to ending world

poverty

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Wright supports new small nuclear reactors and geothermal

power

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Democrats, Wright agree on need for more power

transmission

(Updates with comments from hearing paragraphs 5,6 and 10)

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Chris Wright,

President-elect Donald Trump's pick to head the U.S. Energy

Department, told U.S. senators in his confirmation hearing on

Wednesday his first priority is expanding domestic energy

production including liquefied natural gas and nuclear power.

Wright, 60, believes fossil fuels are the key to ending

world poverty, which is a greater problem than climate change's

"distant" threat, according to a report he wrote as CEO of

oilfield services company Liberty Energy.

The hearing was briefly stopped several times by protesters

with at least one shouting about the deadly fires in Los Angeles

and the role fossil fuels play in global warming.

Wright supports some fossil fuel alternatives, such as small

nuclear power reactors, which are not yet commercially

available, and geothermal power. But he has criticized solar and

wind power as insufficient.

"Previous administrations have viewed energy as a liability

instead of the immense national asset that it is," Wright told

the Senate energy committee.

"To compete globally, we must expand energy production,

including commercial nuclear and liquefied natural gas, and cut

the cost of energy for Americans."

U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas, a super-chilled

exportable form of natural gas, hit a record in 2023 thanks to

the shale boom. The U.S. now produces oil and gas at a higher

rate than any other country ever has.

Wright, an engineer who studied fusion energy, is expected

to win a majority in the 100-member Senate, now controlled by

Republicans, and will step down from Liberty once confirmed.

Wright would replace Jennifer Granholm, who urged caution on

the issuance of new permits to export LNG, saying unfettered

exports will boost emissions of gases blamed for climate change

and risk raising fuel prices for manufacturers and home owners.

The top Democrat on the committee, Senator Martin Heinrich,

from fossil fuel-producing New Mexico, said after meeting Wright

last week the two agreed that the Energy Department "must help

speed the expansion of interregional transmission infrastructure

to meet our nation's skyrocketing demand for clean power."

Heinrich said companies have invested nearly $500 billion in

clean energy after legislation passed in recent years including

President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, and told Wright

that programs in those laws should not be clawed back in order

to protect clean energy and the jobs that come with it.

Wright is expected to work on a new energy council with Doug

Burgum, Trump's nominee for interior secretary.

Wright said that the U.S. must remove barriers to progress

on energy. Trump, a Republican who takes office on Jan. 20, may

declare a national energy emergency, allowing him to fast-track

permits for new power infrastructure and other energy projects.

The move would fit into Trump's agenda to expand energy

output as U.S. power demand begins to surge for the first time

in decades and to reverse President Joe Biden's pause on

approvals of LNG exports.

Biden passed a signature climate change law with billions of

dollars to support alternative energy projects. But Congress has

failed so far to pass a permitting bill for the transmission

infrastructure needed to move huge amounts of power from

high-tech projects like renewables and planned new nuclear

reactors.