Politics
JUST IN: Trump Moves Closer To Fulfilling Top Campaign Promise With Latest Cabinet Confirmation
Chris Wright has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Energy, bringing the total number of confirmed cabinet nominees to nine. Wright will play a key role in the president’s vital campaign promise to ramp up U.S. energy production.
Wright, who was the CEO of the fracking firm Liberty Energy before entering politics, was confirmed on Monday in a 59-38 vote. Seven Democrats joined all available Senate Republicans in voting to confirm. The crucial nominee previously advanced through the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee before his nomination went to a floor vote.
The latest confirmation has put the pieces in place for President Trump to implement his “drill baby, drill” agenda. Just last week, the Senate voted to confirm Doug Burgum as Secretary of the Interior, who is expected to work closely with Wright on the president’s energy agenda.
President Trump previously declared an “energy emergency” on his first day in office, which allowed him to lift his predecessor’s ban on liquefied natural gas exports and do away with several climate change restrictions imposed by the Biden Administration. Trump has also put plans in motion to resume offshore drilling and revitalize a number of important energy projects, such as the Keystone XL pipeline.
During his confirmation hearing, Wright identified three “immediate tasks” where he would focus his attention. The list included, American energy, leading the world in innovation and technology breakthroughs and increasing production in America.
“America has a historic opportunity to secure our energy systems, deliver leadership in scientific and technological innovation, steward our weapons stockpiles, and meet Cold War legacy waste commitments,” Wright told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last month.
Wright, who attended MIT “specifically to work on fusion energy,” went on to attend graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley where he worked “on solar energy as well as power electronics.” He further told the committee that he has always strived to find innovative ways to refine energy production while making the process safer and cleaner.
“Energy is the essential agent of change that enables everything that we do. A low energy society is poor. A highly energized society can bring health, wealth, and opportunity for all,” Wright told the committee. “The stated mission of the company that I founded – Liberty Energy – is to better human lives through energy. Liberty works directly in oil, natural gas, next generation geothermal and has partnerships in next-generation nuclear energy and new battery technology.”
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