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Shale boss Chris Wright is the frontrunner to be Donald Trump’s energy secretary, a role which would put the oilman at the heart of the administration’s drive to loosen restrictions on the fossil fuel industry.
Wright, the chief executive of oilfield services group Liberty Energy, has quickly become the likeliest candidate for the job, said three people familiar with the Trump transition team’s thinking.
His appointment would be another big win for the US oil industry, which has enthusiastically supported his candidacy, and give him a key role in enacting the president-elect’s plans to build up exports of liquefied natural gas.
Trump has vowed on the campaign trail to undo President Joe Biden’s pause on LNG export permits on “day one” of his administration, a task that would fall to his new energy secretary.
Wright courted controversy last year when he lashed out at the use of terms including “climate crisis”, “clean energy” and “carbon pollution”.
“There is no climate crisis and we are not in the midst of an energy transition either,” he said in a video posted to LinkedIn.
Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources and Trump’s most prominent industry backer, has described Wright as “very, very good on energy”.
“He knows it really well,” Hamm told the Financial Times in an interview in October.
Wright would be the latest addition to Trump’s administration with ties to the fossil fuels industry after Doug Burgum — governor of oil state North Dakota — was appointed Trump’s energy tsar on Friday.
Burgum, who will also serve as interior secretary, will be tasked with co-ordinating a sweeping deregulation plan to boost fossil fuel supplies.
“America is blessed with vast amounts of ‘Liquid Gold’ and other valuable Minerals and Resources, right beneath our feet,” Trump said in a statement on Friday announcing Burgum’s appointment.
“We will ‘DRILL BABY DRILL’, expand ALL forms of Energy production to grow our Economy, and create good-paying jobs,” he said in the statement.
On top of its role overseeing exports, the Department of Energy is responsible for the US nuclear weapons programme, environmental clean-ups and scientific research and development through its oversight of the country’s national laboratories.
Jennifer Granholm, Biden’s energy secretary, has played a prominent role promoting the Inflation Reduction Act, the president’s landmark climate law, which Trump has vowed to repeal.
Granholm told the FT any efforts to unpick the legislation, which earmarked billions of dollars in tax credits for clean energy would be “not just unilaterally disarming, we would be stabbing ourselves because it would be so foolish”.
