Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Fracking CEO Chris Wright is on track to be the nation’s next energy secretary, despite some tense moments during his confirmation hearing.
Tension centered largely around climate change. Wright acknowledges that the planet is warming, but yesdownplayed the phenomenon’s connection to extreme weather.
However, even some Democrats expressed support for his nomination, including Sen. John Hickenlooper (Colo), who introduced Wright at the start of the hearing.
“He’s a scientist who has invested his life around energy. He’s actually a no-holds-barred fossil fuel enthusiast in almost every way, but he studied nuclear,” Hickenlooper said. “His first years of work were in solar. He has experience in wind. He is a key practitioner and innovator around geothermal.”
“I have great optimism that we can work together,” Hickenlooper added.
Wright is the CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking technology company. He is about to lead the Department of Energy, which oversees energy research and lending, as well as the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal.
Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) asked Wright tough questions about some of his previous comments, particularly a Linkedin post in which Wright wrote: “The wildfire hype is just hype to justify further impoverishment of policies of bad governance”.
The post also included a link to an op-ed titled “Climate Change Hasn’t Set the World on Fire.”
Padilla asked, “Given the devastation we’re experiencing right now in Los Angeles, do you still think the wildfires are just hype?”
“I stand by my previous comment,” Wright said in response, but also said that “climate change is a real, global phenomenon.”
“Tell that to the families of the more than two dozen lost in these fires,” replied Padilla.
At various points during the hearing, several climate protesters interrupted, objecting to Wright’s position as a fossil fuel CEO andinvoking forest fires.
He also faced tough questions from Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) about a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser in which President-elect Trumpasked energy executives for $1 billion in campaign cash.
The Washington Postreported that during the fundraiser, Trump asked the energy tycoons to raise $1 billion for his campaign and that doing so would be a “deal” because of the money they would save due to their policies
“The president didn’t put this deal forward,” said Wright, who donated more than $200,000 to theTrump 47 Joint Fundraising Committee.
“That’s not what was reported,” Hirono replied.
In response to Hickenlooper’s questions, Wright acknowledged that climate change is happening, saying it’s “a global problem, it’s a real problem, it’s a challenging problem.”
“The solution to climate change is to evolve our energy system,” he added.
“Do I wish we could move faster? Absolutely. There are things we can do: investments, together, through the Department of Energy to accelerate the development of new energy technologies that are really the only way to address climate change , absolutely. We should have nothing but American leadership in this area.”
This marks a bit of a difference from his previous comments. In a video posted online, he previously said that “there is no climate crisis and we are not in the middle of an energy transition either.”
“We have seen no increase in the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts or floods despite the endless fearmongering of the media, politicians and activists,” he adds in the nearly 13 minutes.video.
United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change he says climate change is causing more frequent and intense heat waves and is likely to increase the frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall.
