Jump to content

Chris Wright

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the United States Secretary of Energy. For other people named Chris Wright, see Chris Wright (disambiguation).

Chris Wright
Official portrait, 2025
17th United States Secretary of Energy
Incumbent
Assumed office
February 3, 2025
PresidentDonald Trump
DeputyJames Danly
Preceded byJennifer Granholm
Personal details
BornChristopher Allen Wright
(1965-01-15) January 15, 1965 (age 61)[1]
Colorado, U.S.
PartyRepublican
SpouseLiz Wright
Education
Chris Wright's voice
Wright's opening statement during his Senate confirmation hearing
Recorded January 15, 2025

Christopher Allen Wright (born January 15, 1965)[1][2] is an American businessman and government official serving as the 17th United States secretary of energy since February 2025. Before leading the U.S. Department of Energy, Wright served as the CEO of Liberty Energy, North America's second largest hydraulic fracturing company, and served on the boards of Oklo Inc., a nuclear technology company, and EMX Royalty Corp., a Canadian mineral rights and mining rights royalty payment company.[3]

On November 16, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced Wright as his nominee for U.S. secretary of energy. Wright's nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 3, 2025, with a 59–38 vote.[4] Wright was sworn in as the Secretary of Energy on February 3, 2025.[5]

Early and personal life

[edit]

Chris Wright was born on January 15, 1965, in a family of Scottish descent and grew up in Colorado. He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[6] He was a graduate student in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and at MIT.[7] Wright and his wife, Liz, live in Englewood, Colorado.[8]

Career

[edit]

Private sector

[edit]
Wright speaking with attendees at the American Conservation Coalition, 2023

In 1992, Wright founded Pinnacle Technologies, a company involved in commercial shale gas production through fracking and served as its CEO until 2006. He was also chairman of Stroud Energy,[9] another company involved in the production of shale gas, before he sold the company in 2006.[8] In 2011, he founded Liberty Energy, then known as Liberty Oilfield Services.[10] As of February 2023, the company was valued at $2.8 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.[11] As the CEO of Liberty Energy, Wright earned $5.6 million in 2023.[6]

In 2019 Wright drank fracking fluid to demonstrate that it was not dangerous,[12][13] and Liberty Energy promoted its "greener selections" for chemical additives.[14] In a video posted to LinkedIn in January 2023, he said, "There is no climate crisis and we're not in the midst of an energy transition either".[15] He claimed that the climate movement around the world was "collapsing under its own weight".[7] He also said that the term "carbon pollution" is misleading.[16]

Wright served on the board of directors for the Denver Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from January 2020 to April 2024.[17][18][19]

In April 2024, Wright testified on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's climate change rule from March 2024, which requires the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions, physical risks to climate change and transition risks.[20] He called the rule unlawful "climate regulation promulgated under the Commission's seal", said that companies' risks associated with extreme weather were decreasing,[20]: 9  and that millions of lives had been saved by reducing cold-related deaths.[20]: 10 

Wright has been on the board of directors of Oklo Inc., a company that designs small fast-neutron reactors, and EMX Royalty Corp., a Canadian royalty payment company for mineral rights and mining rights.[3]

Secretary of Energy

[edit]
Wright at his hearing to be secretary of energy, 2025

On November 15, 2024, the Financial Times reported that Wright was the most likely candidate for United States Secretary of Energy in Donald Trump's second presidency.[21] He had donated $228,390 to Trump's joint fundraising committee in 2024.[6] Republican senator John Barrasso praised Wright as an "energy innovator."[22] He received several endorsements from Trump allies and oil-industry interests, including American Energy Alliance president Thomas Pyle and Continental Resources chairman Harold Hamm.[23] The Union of Concerned Scientists said Wright "deliberately misrepresents climate data and research."[24]

On November 16, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination of Wright to serve as U.S. secretary of energy as well as a member of the National Energy Council following confirmation by the Senate.[25] The United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources voted 15–6 in favor of Wright's nomination on January 23,[26] and the U.S. Senate confirmed Wright in a 59–38 vote[4] on February 3, 2025; he was sworn in later the same day.[5]

As secretary of energy, Wright has supported the rollback of measures to combat climate change and overseen the crafting of a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) report questioning mainstream climate science.[27][28] In an interview with Kimberley Strassel, Wright said that "too little" atmospheric carbon dioxide is a "bigger risk" than rising CO2 levels.[29] He falsely claimed that climate change is not impacting extreme weather events.[30] Wright's statements and the DOE report have been widely condemned by the scientific community for misrepresentations and cherry-picked data.[28][31][32]

Wright at a Jefferson Lab Visit with Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin in Newport News, Virginia

In September 2025, Wright wrote on social media platform X that ”Even if you wrapped the entire planet in a solar panel, you would only be producing 20% of global energy. One of the biggest mistakes politicians can make is equating the ELECTRICITY with ENERGY!” Currently, electricity makes up 20% of the global energy demand; Solar panels are only capable of producing electricity.[33][34][35]

Wright has been critical of plans to achieve net-zero emissions globally by 2050, saying, "Net zero 2050 is just a colossal train wreck … It’s just a monstrous human impoverishment program and of course there is no way it is going to happen."[36] He argued that the increase in natural gas production was the "largest driver of decarbonization" in the United States.[37]

Wright criticized the European Green Deal and advocated for oil and gas exports from the United States to the EU.[38] He also criticized net-zero transition in the United Kingdom.[39] On September 12, 2025, Wright urged EU member states to stop buying Russian gas and not finance Russia's invasion of Ukraine, saying: "The more we can strangle Russia’s ability to fund this murderous war, the better for all of us."[40]

In October 2025, Wright directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to a "file joint, co-located load and generation interconnection requests",[41] and appealed to the White House to accelerate reviews required to connect AI to power grids.[42] In August of 2025, he was responsible for the release of two documents that were disputed by scientists.[27][28][31][32]

In November 2025, Wright stated that nuclear power would receive the largest amount of loans from the Department of Energy as part of the second Trump administration’s energy policy.[43]

In February 2026, he paid a three-day visit to Venezuela and discussed cooperation in the energy sector with the country's acting president, Delcy Rodriguez, calling for increased investment in Venezuela's oil extraction.[44]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Energy Secretary Nominee Chris Wright Testifies at Confirmation Hearing". C-SPAN. January 15, 2025. Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  2. ^ Report of proposed sale of securities (Report). U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. August 9, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Christopher A Wright "Chris"". Bloomberg News. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  4. ^ a b "On the Nomination (Confirmation: Christopher Wright, of Colorado, to be Secretary of Energy )". senate.gov.gov. February 3, 2025. Retrieved March 1, 2025.
  5. ^ a b "Statement from Energy Secretary Chris Wright" (Press release). United States Department of Energy. February 3, 2025. Retrieved February 5, 2025. U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright released the following statement after being sworn in earlier today as the 17th Secretary of Energy:
  6. ^ a b c Charalambous, Peter; Glasser, Matthew; Pereira, Ivan. "What to know about Trump's energy secretary nominee Chris Wright". ABC News. Archived from the original on November 22, 2024. Retrieved November 22, 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Trump names fossil fuel executive Chris Wright as energy secretary". AP News. November 16, 2024. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  8. ^ a b "Liberty Energy Leadership". Liberty Energy. Archived from the original on October 6, 2024. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  9. ^ "Stroud Exploration Company, LLC". Stroud Exploration Company, LLC. Archived from the original on November 15, 2024. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
  10. ^ "Home". Liberty Energy. November 13, 2024. Archived from the original on November 17, 2024. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
  11. ^ Morenne, Benoît (February 4, 2023). "Energy CEO Fights Climate Science. And LinkedIn. North Face, Too". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on May 25, 2024. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  12. ^ "Trump picks oil industry CEO Chris Wright as Energy Secretary". Reuters. November 16, 2024. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  13. ^ "Fracking fluid experiment". The Sydney Morning Herald. November 18, 2024. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  14. ^ "Green Select". December 20, 2019. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
  15. ^ Samuelsohn, Darren. "Donald Trump to nominate industry CEO Chris Wright to be secretary of Energy". USA TODAY. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  16. ^ "Trump nominates fracking magnate Chris Wright as energy secretary". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on November 18, 2024. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
  17. ^ "Denver Branch Alumni". www.kansascityfed.org. December 5, 2024. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  18. ^ Wright, Christopher Allen (January 3, 2025). "Nominee Report: Wright, Christopher Allen" (PDF). Office of Government Ethics. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  19. ^ "Chris Wright - Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City". April 29, 2024. Archived from the original on April 29, 2024. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  20. ^ a b c "WRITTEN STATEMENT OF CHRIS WRIGHT, FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN & CEO LIBERTY ENERGY I NC " (PDF). House Committee on Financial Services. April 10, 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 21, 2024. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
  21. ^ McCormick, Myles; Fedor, Lauren; Smyth, Jamie (November 15, 2024). "Oil boss Chris Wright leads race to be Donald Trump's energy secretary". Financial Times. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  22. ^ Matthew Daly, Will Weissert and Colleen Long (November 17, 2024). "Trump names CEO of Denver-based oil and gas company as energy secretary". The Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 17, 2024. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
  23. ^ Natter, Ali (November 15, 2024). "Fracking Boss Picks Up Endorsements to Be Trump Energy Secretary". Bloomberg News. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  24. ^ "Trump's Pick for Energy Secretary, Chris Wright, Is Wrong on Purpose. Here Are the Facts". The Equation. January 14, 2025. Retrieved February 14, 2026.
  25. ^ "Donald Trump said he would nominate Chris Wright, the chief executive of Liberty Energy, an oil field services company, as his secretary of energy". The New York Times. November 16, 2024.
  26. ^ "Senate committees approve Trump Cabinet nominations". CNN. January 23, 2025. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  27. ^ a b "Energy Dept. Attacks Climate Science in Contentious Report". July 31, 2025. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  28. ^ a b c "Contrarian climate assessment from U.S. government draws swift pushback". www.science.org. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  29. ^ "WSJ Opinion: Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Resetting the Climate Debate". WSJ. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  30. ^ Masters, Jeff (May 8, 2025). "How to deny climate change using the IPCC report » Yale Climate Connections". Yale Climate Connections. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  31. ^ a b "Takeaways from scientists on the Trump administration's work on climate change and public health". AP News. August 26, 2025. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  32. ^ a b "Scientists give harsh grades to Trump administration work aimed at undoing a key climate finding". AP News. August 26, 2025. Retrieved August 30, 2025.
  33. ^ "Chris Wright's Twitter Is Destroying His Credibility - Heatmap News". heatmap.news. Retrieved February 11, 2026.
  34. ^ "Outlook for electricity – World Energy Outlook 2022 – Analysis". IEA. Retrieved February 11, 2026.
  35. ^ Solar, Boston (July 15, 2024). "How Do Solar Panels Produce Energy? | Boston Solar | MA". | Boston Solar | MA. Retrieved February 11, 2026.
  36. ^ Meredith, Sam (September 9, 2025). "'A colossal train wreck': U.S. energy chief slams odds of net zero by 2050". CNBC.
  37. ^ "US energy secretary downplays climate risks as Washington seeks EU gas deals". Reuters. September 12, 2025.
  38. ^ "Trump energy chief: Key EU green law 'bad for the US, even worse' for Europe". Euractiv. September 12, 2025.
  39. ^ "Trump's energy chief blasts 'heartbreaking' British green transition". Politico. September 11, 2025.
  40. ^ Gavin, Gabriel (September 12, 2025). "Hungary and Slovakia must quit Russian gas and nuclear, Trump envoy warns". Politico.
  41. ^ "US pushes regulators on connecting data centers to grid". Reuters. October 27, 2025. Retrieved November 3, 2025.
  42. ^ Harder, Amy (October 29, 2025). "Exclusive: Nvidia backs new data center that aims to cut your electricity bill". Axios. Retrieved November 3, 2025.
  43. ^ Kimball, Spencer (November 10, 2025). "Nuclear power will get the most Energy Department loans, Chris Wright says". CNBC. Retrieved February 14, 2026.
  44. ^ Pozzebon, Stefano (February 13, 2026). "US energy secretary and Venezuela's acting president tour oil facility in warming ties just weeks after Maduro ouster". CNN. Retrieved February 14, 2026.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chris Wright (businessman).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chris_Wright&oldid=1338279224"