Who’s In Charge of Our Natural Resources? Part 1: Our Energy

by Maisy Rohrer

This is an installment of a three-part series on the Trump Administration officials now in charge of our land, air, water, and energy.

A picture of Chris Wright at his Senate confirmation hearing in January 2025.

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“I've studied and followed the data and the evolution of climate change for at least 20 years now. It is a global issue. It is a real issue. It’s a challenging issue. And the solution to climate change is to evolve our energy system. I am for improving all energy technologies that can better human lives and reduce emissions.” 

This is what Chris Wright told the Senate on January 15th (49:10), during his confirmation hearing for Secretary of Energy. Yet, since his confirmation on February 3rd to lead the Department of Energy (DOE), Wright has been loud and proud about his anti-climate agenda.

This isn’t necessarily surprising. Wright has worked in the oil and gas industry for decades. Most recently, he served as the CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking company he founded in 2011. He’s highly regarded as a leader in the industry.

And he’s bringing his deep ties to the industry with him to the DOE.

What do we know about Wright’s agenda?

Most prominently, there’s the nine-point plan to “unleash [the] golden era of American energy dominance,” outlined in his first Secretarial Order. The plan calls for speeding up natural gas exports, rolling back efficiency standards, and potentially moving away from net-zero emissions policies. 

The plan doesn’t explicitly call for increasing fossil fuel production and consumption (although it’s heavily implied). However, days after the plan's release, he clarified that this is his intention while speaking at a conference hosted by podcaster Jordan Peterson. When asked if all fossil fuels were on the table, Wright exclaimed, “In fact, I should have said, number one is get out of the way of the production, export, and enhancement of our volumes of coal, oil, and gas” (2:40).

What about clean energy?

Wright isn’t just interested in boosting fossil fuels. He’s also attempting to disrupt renewable energy development and slow the clean energy transition. E&E News recently reported that the DOE has created a “hit list” of billions of dollars worth of grant funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, and other DOE-funded clean energy projects. 

The list includes everything from electric vehicle charger installations in underserved areas and grid resilience improvements, to research into the impacts of windmills on wildlife and the development of offshore wind projects in New England, capable of powering up to two million homes. 

In addition, the list included cutting $500 million for six ongoing long-duration energy storage (LDES) projects, which were set to commercially test new battery technology capable of storing energy for days or even weeks, multiple of which don’t rely on lithium-ion. 

Chris Wright shows off his Secretarial Order for more liquid natural gas exports at CERAWeek 2025, a bougie, week-long annual conference in Houston, TX for the oil & gas industry. Wright was a plenary and keynote speaker. Photographer: Lynn Pennington/ZUMA

What can we make of all this?

Wright is skilled at saying things to make it seem like he’s acting in the best interest of everyday energy consumers—you and me. In reality, he’s doing everything for the fossil fuel industry. 

For example, Wright has claimed that he’ll work to “cut the cost of energy for Americans” (16:27). Yet, the DOE is canceling projects that will make energy cheaper and our grid safer and more reliable. He’s also claimed to support technology that “can better human lives and reduce emissions” (01:52:33), and yet is canceling the very projects aimed at demonstrating that renewables are a valid alternative on a large scale.

Why would he want to do this? Wright is making all the right moves to ensure oil and gas companies can continue to profit without limitations or competition (or, at least, less competition). All at the expense of we, the people’s climate and health.

Keep learning:

• Oily Corruption

  Check out Audrey Robertson, a board member of Chris Wright’s Liberty Energy fracking company, co-founder of the oil and gas company Franklin Mountain Energy (which the EPA is currently investigating for major pollution violations), and the new leader of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy within the DOE. 

• Losing the IRA

  Take a look at this report by Energy Innovation to learn about the negative effects that may arise if Trump rolls back funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (which includes historic amounts of climate and clean energy financing).

  Here’s an overview: household energy bills will increase, millions of jobs will be lost or missed, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will decrease by billions, and millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide will be added to the atmosphere. The authors included a nifty, clickable US map to see the impacts on individual states, so be sure to check out how your state might be affected.

  It’s worth noting that Republican-led districts and states have benefited the most from IRA tax incentives.

• "Bettering Human Lives"

  Chris Wright’s company, Liberty Energy, has a foundation called “Bettering Human Lives” which seeks to address poverty in Africa by providing cooking fuel made of—you guess it—oil. The foundation’s 2024 report pits energy and development needs in Africa against climate action, arguing that if oil and gas production is not increased, billions of people will be harmed and kept in poverty. This ignores the long-term harms and costs of fossil fuels on human health and the environment, which many of these communities already deal with despite contributing the least to global fossil fuel emissions. It also assumes that people in underdeveloped countries and regions want to rely on fossil fuels rather than pursue sustainable development. Self-determination who?

• Trump's bid for Greenland: More to it than meets the ice

  You may have heard about Vice President JD Vance, his wife, Usha Vance, the (disgraced?) national security advisor Mike Waltz, and our man, Chris Wright’s, recent visit to Greenland (even though no one wanted them there). Vance, Trump, and co. have made a big stink about Greenland because of its strategic military position to protect national security and even world peace. Conveniently, there’s also a large deposit of rare earth minerals under the melting permafrost (ironic, isn’t it?).