Trump picks fracking company CEO Chris Wright as next Department of Energy secretary
CNN
President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday named Chris Wright, the CEO of Denver-based fracking company Liberty Energy, as his pick to be the next secretary of the Department of Energy.
President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday named Chris Wright, the CEO of Denver-based fracking company Liberty Energy, as his pick to be the next secretary of the Department of Energy. Wright will also serve as a member on the newly formed Council of National Energy, which Trump said will consist of all agencies involved in the “permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation” of energy. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum – Trump’s pick for secretary of the Department of the Interior – will be the chairman. “Chris has been a leading technologist and entrepreneur in Energy. He has worked in Nuclear, Solar, Geothermal, and Oil and Gas. Most significantly, Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American Shale Revolution that fueled American Energy Independence, and transformed the Global Energy Markets and Geopolitics,” Trump wrote in a statement Saturday. In addition to his company’s work on fracking oil and natural gas, Wright also sits on the board of a modular nuclear reactor company and has talked about the potential of nuclear energy. Developing nuclear energy has become a big focus of the Biden administration’s Energy Department. The department also houses the National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency that maintains the nuclear stockpile. Harold Hamm, the Oklahoma-based fracking billionaire who has had Trump’s ear on energy issues during the campaign, told trade publication Hart Energy on Monday that Wright was his top choice for the post, calling him a “really, really sharp individual.” Wright has acknowledged the link between burning fossil fuels and climate change but has expressed doubt that climate change is linked to worsening extreme weather. He has also been a staunch supporter of fossil fuels in public interviews, saying they are necessary to lift the developing world out of poverty.
This month, terrorist suspects in the alleged bomb-throwing in New York City and the synagogue attack in Michigan visited Phantom Fireworks stores shortly beforehand.
In near-daily briefings with top military officials at the White House, President Donald Trump has reviewed options that include sending American troops into Iran.
With his Atlantic City casinos in duress in the 1990s, Donald Trump saw a potential lifeline in sports betting and aggressively campaigned to legalize it in New Jersey. But when state powerbrokers shut him down, Trump vowed that he’d eventually find a way to win.
Unpaid Transportation Security Administration workers are struggling to stay afloat – and on the job – amid a partial government shutdown that has frustrated travelers inching through security lines that stretch for hours, with wait times only expected to worsen this weekend.
As Havana calls on Cuban exiles to invest in the island, many in the United States are rejecting the offer outright, viewing it as a desperate move by a government under mounting pressure.
After weeks of stalemate — and mounting airport delays nationwide — leaders in both parties are scrambling to work out a deal to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, though it remains unclear if a compromise is in reach.
Trump administration officials are making a desperate push to secure every available barrel of oil amid a worsening energy crisis — even if it means lifting sanctions on the very country that they’re fighting against.
A federal judge on Friday voided various parts of a restrictive press policy rolled out by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last year, ruling that they trampled on the constitutional rights of reporters who seek to cover the US military from within its sprawling headquarters.
President Donald Trump is reshaping a Colorado Republican primary by offering one of the candidates a role in his administration and returning his endorsement to the incumbent, whom he called a “RINO” just last month.
More than a month into the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are reckoning with their own travel privileges amid anxieties the funding crunch could exacerbate issues at already understaffed airports around the country.
TV host and comedian Bill Maher has been chosen to receive the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, two sources close to the Kennedy Center told CNN.
Conventional wisdom has set in that President Donald Trump’s base is sticking with him on the Iran war, but he has alienated significant portions of his voters — and risks alienating more.
US officials are furiously trying to avert a potential monthslong closure of the Strait of Hormuz, privately acknowledging that reopening the key waterway is a problem without a clear solution and dependent at least in part on what lengths President Donald Trump is willing to go to force the Iranian regime’s hand, multiple administration and intelligence officials tell CNN.