Trump's DOE pick voices support for all types of energy during US Senate hearing

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for energy secretary, Liberty Energy Inc. CEO Chris Wright, stressed his support for creating abundance in a wide range of US energy resources during a mostly friendly Senate hearing where he was occasionally pressed about prior statements on climate change. 

Potential for a bipartisan confirmation vote emerged early in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee confirmation hearing on Jan. 15, as Wright was introduced by Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper, a fellow Coloradan. Hickenlooper said he disagreed with Wright, an avid fossil fuel supporter, on many things but respected the executive's background as a scientist and successful entrepreneur with experience in nuclear power, solar, wind, and geothermal energy, along with oil and gas.

Committee Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) said he hoped to advance Wright's nomination out of the committee by the end of January, with timing on a full Senate confirmation vote still unclear.

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), the committee's ranking member, explored Wright's attitude toward landmark laws passed during President Joe Biden's term that provided new resources for DOE programs to help unlock hundreds of gigawatts of solar, wind and battery storage projects.

The hearing also featured intense questioning of the nominee's attitude toward climate change as wildfires continue to devastate Los Angeles. Amid multiple interruptions by climate protesters, Wright stressed support for both conventional fossil fuels and renewable energy technologies.

"You have to understand that there isn't dirty energy and clean energy," Wright said. "All energies are different, and they all have different tradeoffs."

More generally, Wright identified three immediate goals as DOE secretary: restoring US "energy dominance," a recurring Trump campaign theme; advancing innovation and technology breakthroughs; and clearing barriers to building energy infrastructure.

Stance on DOE loans, grid expansion

Early in the hearing, Wright pledged to "immediately engage" on the question of potentially suspending new DOE loans in response to an inspector general report that found conflicts of interest at the DOE's Loan Programs Office.

The office is administering $385 billion in loan authority granted under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Inflation Reduction Act and other related legislation for initiatives such as advanced clean energy manufacturing. The DOE's inspector general in December 2024 recommended a pause on new loans after an audit found instances where the Loan Programs Office failed to track contractors that may be serving both the loan office and prospective borrowers.

"Nothing is more important than the integrity of the loan process," Wright said in response to questioning from Lee.

At the same time, Wright voiced support for US electric grid expansion during an exchange with Heinrich, one of the most pro-transmission Democrats in the Senate.

Heinrich asked Wright to weigh in on interregional transmission planning provisions in a bipartisan permitting reform bill advanced by the committee last year that ultimately failed to clear the full Senate.

"I agree with you entirely that being able to build new transmission lines, to be able to repower existing transmission lines and grow their capacity, and many other things are important to meet this growing demand for energy and hopefully return to a decline in the real cost of electricity and the growth of reliability," Wright said.

Heinrich also pressed Wright on a recommendation in Project 2025, a conservative policy playbook with links to the Trump campaign, to eliminate the DOE's Grid Deployment Office. The office's Transmission Facilitation Program is supporting multiple new large-scale power lines that "will save customers money and increase reliability," Heinrich noted.

Wright stopped short of assuring Heinrich that the Grid Deployment Office will endure in the next administration. "I'm aligned with you and will seek to find the best ways to improve our transmission grid, including expansion and new lines," he said.

Support for natural gas, LNG exports

The nominee expressed enthusiasm for US LNG and the possible development of an export terminal in southeast Pennsylvania outside of Philadelphia. But Wright also promised to consider the impact on domestic prices when pressed by Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Angus King (I-Maine).

"Nothing is more important than the supply, the affordability and the access to energy to Americans," Wright said.

Wright also indicated the Trump administration will seek to top up the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which currently holds approximately 394 million barrels of oil, down from the 638.5 million barrels it contained when Biden was inaugurated.

"We're going to have extreme events, whether they're geopolitical or whatever, and that is a safety valve that should be used as a safety valve and not as a price control mechanism," Wright told reporters after the hearing.

Nuclear energy questions

When senators asked about Liberty, a Denver-headquartered company that provides services to upstream oil and gas firms, and Wright's personal investments in a range of businesses that include small modular reactor developer Oklo Inc. and geothermal energy startup Fervo Energy Co., Wright vowed to sever all financial ties to energy companies if confirmed.

Several senators questioned Wright about small modular reactors, uranium mining, enrichment and storage of nuclear waste.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) asked Wright whether he agrees with Trump that the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site in Nevada is unworkable. Wright initially hedged, saying any storage site needs local support.

When Cortez Masto pressed him for an unequivocal statement, Wright said, "I'm new to politics, as you can see," adding that he will work with "senators across the county to find solutions for long-term disposal of nuclear waste."

Wright assured senators that he takes oversight of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which accounts for a large part of the DOE budget, very seriously. Along with the stability of the nation's power grid, he said nuclear security is "my single biggest concern in this job."

Wright lamented that the US has largely lost its ability to enrich uranium domestically. He told several senators that providing domestic uranium fuel for future reactors in development will be critical to limiting reliance on foreign adversaries such as Russia and China.

When asked by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) about fusion technologies and efforts to build a domestic supply chain for fusion energy components, Wright called fusion "an exciting new technology, with huge room to run."

Softening views on climate change

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) highlighted the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area to underscore that the "climate crisis and its deadly effect is very real to my neighbors and my constituents."

During a tense exchange, Padilla said he was disappointed to find social media posts in which the nominee described wildfires as "hype" to justify more impoverishment from bad government policies.

Wright said he stood by past comments but acknowledged climate change as a real phenomenon and called the impact on Californians "heart-wrenching."

The natural gas executive has previously described climate impacts as "relatively modest" and slow-moving, while placing greater emphasis on the need to bring energy to billions in poverty.

During the hearing, Wright appeared to soften prior statements casting doubt on the idea that an energy transition is actually occurring.

"It's a challenging issue, and the solution to climate change is to evolve our energy system," Wright told senators. "Do I wish we could make faster progress? Absolutely. Are there things we can do with investments together through the Department of Energy to accelerate development of new energy technologies that are really the only pathway to address climate change? Absolutely, and we should have nothing but American leadership in this area."