Wright, CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, has been one of the industry's loudest voices against efforts to fight alleged climate change. He says more fossil fuel production can lift people out of poverty around the globe and has promised to help Trump "unleash energy security and prosperity."
The Senate approved his nomination, 59-38. Eight Democrats — including both senators from Wright's home state of Colorado — voted in favor.
The centerpiece of Trump's energy policy is "drill, baby, drill," and he has pledged to dismantle what he calls Democrats' "green new scam" in favor of boosting production of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal that emit planet-warming greenhouse gases.
"President Trump shares my passion for energy," Wright said at his confirmation hearing last month, promising that if confirmed, he would "work tirelessly to implement (Trump's) bold agenda as an unabashed steward for all sources of affordable, reliable and secure American energy."
That includes oil and natural gas, coal, nuclear power and hydropower, along with wind and solar power and geothermal energy, Wright said.
Wright, 60, has been chairman and CEO of Liberty Energy since 2011 and has no prior experience in government. He grew up in Colorado, earned an undergraduate degree at MIT and did graduate work in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and MIT. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, which helped launch commercial shale gas production through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
He later served as chairman of Stroud Energy, an early shale gas producer, before founding Liberty Resources in 2010.
As energy secretary, Wright will join Interior Secretary Doug Burgum as a key player on energy policy. Both will serve on a new National Energy Council that Burgum will chair. The panel will include all executive branch agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, with a focus on "cutting red tape" and boosting domestic energy production, Trump said. The council's mission represents a near-complete reversal from actions pursued by Democratic President Joe Biden, who made fighting climate change a top priority.
Wright said he would sever all ties across the energy industry if confirmed.
