[News Figures] Oil Tycoon 'Chris Wright' Appointed as US Energy Secretary... Fossil Fuel Advocate

Chris Wright, nominated by President-elect Donald Trump as Secretary of Energy, is known as a 'fossil fuel evangelist.' He majored in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and later worked in the shale gas industry. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, a shale gas development and production company, serving as its CEO until 2006. In 2011, he established Liberty Energy, an oil production company, where he currently serves as CEO.

Liberty Energy, founded by him, specializes in hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking,' for shale gas extraction. The company uses a method that fractures rock by injecting a mixture of sand grains and chemical additives to extract oil and gas, which is credited with accelerating the shale gas revolution. However, there has been criticism that the toxic additives used in fracking contaminate groundwater and soil. In response, Wright drank the fracking fluid himself in 2019 to prove that the liquid used in fracking is not dangerous.

Chris Wright, CEO of Liberty Energy. Liberty Energy website

On social media (SNS) and podcasts, he has advocated for oil and gas development. Responding to criticism of the fossil fuel industry as "detached from reality," he has emphasized the irreplaceable reality of the oil and gas industry. He argued that if the damage caused by the oil and gas industry amounts to just 10 cents, it generates one dollar in profit, placing weight on the 'economic aspect.' He also expressed that "oil and gas save people from poverty."

He holds a skeptical view on climate change. In a video posted on his LinkedIn last year, he claimed, "There is no climate crisis, and we are not in the middle of an energy transition," adding that "humans and all complex life on Earth cannot exist without carbon dioxide, so the term 'carbon pollution' is absurd." In a CNBC interview, he stated, "The world runs on oil and gas," and dismissed international demands to stop using fossil fuels as an "absurd timeframe."

Since Wright shares a similar energy policy perspective with President-elect Trump, he is expected to take a stance opposite to the Biden administration's green policies. Some speculate that this could lead to setbacks in the Paris Climate Agreement and delays in the transition to environmentally friendly renewable energy.