Chris Wright, a longtime fossil fuel advocate and outspoken critic of climate policy, was confirmed as secretary of energy in February on a 59-38 Senate vote. During his confirmation hearing he denounced the so-called “green new scam” — climate-preservations proposals he sees as costly and ineffective. Instead, Wright has endorsed a multiresource strategy that combines finite sources like oil, gas, and coal with nuclear, hydropower and other resources to meet the nation’s energy needs.
At the CERAWeek conference in March 2025, Wright criticized the Biden administration’s climate policies as misguided and a burden to taxpayers, and he believes claims of disproportionate harm to the climate from fossil fuels are exaggerated. The stance has drawn accusations of him being a climate denier, but Wright prefers the term “climate realist.”
Since being sworn in, Wright has pledged to review and update climate assessment reports produced under previous administrations. The Department of Energy’s August report on the impacts of greenhouse gases on the U.S. climate was immediately scrutinized, with 85 scientists accusing him of cherry-picking data and spreading misinformation.
Who is he?
Wright, a Colorado native, ventured to the Northeast to explore his passion for nuclear fusion at MIT. He received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and earned graduate degrees at MIT and the University of California, Berkeley for his research into solar energy.
In 1992, Wright founded Pinnacle Technologies, a company that pioneered shale gas extraction through fracking. Wright served as CEO of Pinnacle and chairman of Stroud Energy, also involved in the extraction of shale gas, until 2006.
Wright then founded the oilfield services company Liberty Energy (first known as Liberty Oilfield Services) in 2011. Eight years later, Wright and the “Liberty Team” took to social media to demonstrate the safety of fracking to pro-climate critics by drinking fracking fluid, which contains a cocktail of bleach, soap and hazardous chemicals. The company reportedly fracks 20 percent of U.S. onshore wells today.
His appointment to the Department of Energy is his first governmental position (other than a stint on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2020 to 2024), and he has vowed to help lead a nation ready to “drill, baby, drill.”
Follow the money
- Before his appointment, Wright served on the board of the nuclear technology company Oklo, working to create neutron microreactors that can operate for long periods without refueling. Oklo went public in 2023 via a SPAC merger with AltC Acquisition Corporation, founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Wright held unvested restricted stock units in Oklo valued between $250,000 and $500,000 while he was director.
- As CEO of Liberty Energy, Wright earned $5.6 million in 2023, and he owns stock in the company worth between $5 million and $25 million.
- In November 2024, Wright donated $50,000 to the Americans for Prosperity Action Committee, following previous contributions of $100,000 in November 2024 and $25,000 in October 2020. Americans for Prosperity is a conservative advocacy group founded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who made their money in fossil fuels. The group has consistently opposed climate regulations, particularly those introduced during the Obama administration. AFP was one of the most vocal critics of the proposed cap-and-trade policy, organizing over 80 events nationwide to protest “global warming alarmism.” The organization is also a major proponent of the Keystone XL pipeline.
- In the summer of 2016, Wright swore off future support of Trump. But in 2024, he made significant personal contributions to Trump and other Republican candidates, including a $228,390 donation to the Trump 47 Committee and another $175,000 contribution linked to a fundraiser in August 2024 co-hosted by his wife, Liz Wright. In September 2024 he donated $25,000 to the Truth and Courage PAC, a group that campaigned for Ted Cruz’s Senate re-election.
Why it matters
- Wright has deep associations with the Koch political network, known to fund groups that challenge climate change and oppose renewable energy. In a 2014 op-ed for The Denver Post, Wright and his wife asserted that they fully supported the Kochs’ defense of limited government and the free market, which allowed for innovation in the shale oil and gas industry.
- In mid-August, an Oklo press release announced that the company had been selected for multiple reactor pilot projects under a new Trump administration reactor program, overseen by Wright and the DOE. In 2023, the organization spent only $30,000 on lobbying. By 2024 the figure jumped to $390,000, a 1,200 percent increase in a single year. The surge has accelerated even more in 2025, with $734,000 spent in the first six months; the first quarter of 2025 surpassed the total lobbying outlay for all of 2024. The lobbying team has also increased from four lobbyists to 15 within the two-year period.
- Wright has joined the list of Trump officials who once condemned the president, only to reverse course when detecting potential political incentives.
- The Trump administration and the Department of Energy have recently stepped up attacks on renewable energy, imposing additional evaluation and approval requirements on routine wind and solar projects. Critics say that these are designed to delay or halt the development of renewable projects, which Trump has called “the scam of the century.” Wind and solar power provided 16 percent of U.S. electricity last year, and continues to be a critical power source for red states such as Oklahoma, Texas and Iowa.
