Chris Wright (energy executive)

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Chris Wright
Chris Wright by Gage Skidmore.jpg
Wright in 2023
United States Secretary of Energy
Nominee
Assuming office
TBD

Christopher Allen Wright [1] (born January 15, 1965) is an American engineer and businessman who is the CEO of Liberty Energy, North America's second largest hydraulic fracturing company. He is the nominee for Energy Secretary under Donald Trump's second presidency. He is a board member of Oklo Inc., a nuclear technology company, and EMX Royalty, a royalty payment company for mineral rights and mining rights. [2]

Contents

Early and personal life

Wright was born in 1965 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). [3] He was a graduate student in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and MIT. [4] Wright and his wife, Liz, live in Englewood, Colorado. [5]

Career

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 (current Stroud Exploration Company), [6] another company involved in the production of shale gas, before he sold the company in 2006. [5] In 2011, he founded Liberty Energy. [7] As of February 2023, the company was valued at US$2.8 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal . [8] As the CEO of Liberty Energy, Wright earned $5.6 million in 2023. [3]

In 2019 Wright drank fracking fluid to demonstrate that it was not dangerous, [9] [10] and Liberty Energy promoted its "greener selections" for chemical additives. [11] 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". [12] He claimed that the climate movement around the world was "collapsing under its own weight". [4] He also said that the term "carbon pollution" is misleading. [13]

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. [14] [15] [16]

In April 2024, he testified on the 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. [17] He called the rule unlawful "climate regulation promulgated under the Commission's seal", said that companies' risks associated with extreme weather were decreasing [17] : 9  and that millions of lives had been saved by reducing cold-related deaths. [17] : 10 

Wright has been on the board of directors of Oklo Inc., a company that designs small fast-neutron reactors, and EMX Royalty, a royalty payment company for mineral rights and mining rights. [2]

Secretary of Energy

Nomination

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; businessmen Ray Washburne and Paul Dabbar were also considered. [18] He had donated $228,390 to Trump's joint fundraising committee in 2024. [3] Republican Senator John Barrasso praised Wright as an "energy innovator". [19] He received several endorsements from Trump allies including American Energy Alliance president Thomas Pyle and Continental Resources chairman Harold Hamm. [20] The next day, Trump announced he would nominate Wright as the United States Secretary of Energy, and he would serve on the National Energy Council if confirmed by the Senate. [21] The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources voted to confirm Wright in a vote of 15-6, now his confirmation will move to the full senate. [22]

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References

  1. ↑ Report of proposed sale of securities (Report). Securities and Exchange Commission. August 9, 2023. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Christopher A Wright "Chris"". Bloomberg News . Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 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.
  4. 1 2 "Trump names fossil fuel executive Chris Wright as energy secretary". AP News. November 16, 2024. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  5. 1 2 "Liberty Energy Leadership". Liberty Energy. Archived from the original on October 6, 2024. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  6. ↑ "Stroud Exploration Company, LLC". Stroud Exploration Company, LLC. Archived from the original on November 15, 2024. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
  7. ↑ "Home". Liberty Energy. November 13, 2024. Archived from the original on November 17, 2024. Retrieved November 18, 2024.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ "Trump picks oil industry CEO Chris Wright as Energy Secretary". Reuters. November 16, 2024. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  10. ↑ "Fracking fluid experiment". The Sydney Morning Herald. November 18, 2024. Retrieved December 24, 2024.
  11. ↑ "Green Select". December 20, 2019. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
  12. ↑ Samuelsohn, Darren. "Donald Trump to nominate industry CEO Chris Wright to be secretary of Energy". USA TODAY. Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  13. ↑ "Trump nominates fracking magnate Chris Wright as energy secretary". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on November 18, 2024. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
  14. ↑ "Denver Branch Alumni". www.kansascityfed.org. December 5, 2024. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  15. ↑ Wright, Christopher Allen (January 3, 2025). "Nominee Report: Wright, Christopher Allen" (PDF). Office of Government Ethics. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  16. ↑ "Chris Wright - Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City". web.archive.org. April 29, 2024. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  17. 1 2 3 "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.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ 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.
  20. ↑ Natter, Ali (November 15, 2024). "Fracking Boss Picks Up Endorsements to Be Trump Energy Secretary". Bloomberg News . Retrieved November 16, 2024.
  21. ↑ "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.
  22. ↑ "Senate committees approve Trump Cabinet nominations". CNN . January 23, 2025. Retrieved January 23, 2025.
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