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Shale boss Chris Wright is the frontrunner to be Donald Trump’s energy secretary, a role which would put the oilman at the heart of the administration’s drive to loosen restrictions on the fossil fuel industry.
Wright, the chief executive of oilfield services group Liberty Energy, has quickly become the most likely candidate for the job, said four people familiar with the Trump transition team’s thinking.
Ray Washburne, chair of petrol station chain Sunoco, and Paul Dabbar, a tech executive who is leading Trump’s transition team for energy roles, are also in the mix for the job, the people said.
Wright’s appointment would be another big win for the US oil industry, which has supported his candidacy, and give him a key role in enacting the president-elect’s plans to increase liquefied natural gas exports.
Trump vowed on the campaign trail to undo President Joe Biden’s pause on LNG export permits on “day one” of his administration, a task that would fall to his new energy secretary.
Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources and Trump’s most prominent industry backer, has touted Wright as a candidate for the role, describing him as “very, very good on energy”.
“He knows it really well,” Hamm told the Financial Times in an interview in October.
Wright’s nomination would likely face staunch opposition from environmentalists, however. The oil boss courted controversy last year when he lashed out at the use of terms including “climate crisis”, “clean energy” and “carbon pollution”.
“There is no climate crisis and we are not in the midst of an energy transition either,” he said in a video posted to LinkedIn. He later denied he was “fight[ing] climate science”.
Washburne, thought to be the other leading contender, served as president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation in Trump’s first administration and previously sat on the board of Energy Transfer, a pipeline company led by Trump donor Kelcy Warren.
Dabbar also served in the previous Trump administration, as under-secretary for science in the energy department.
Wright, Washburne and Dabbar did not respond to requests for comment.
All three men would be the latest addition to Trump’s administration with ties to the fossil fuels industry after Doug Burgum — governor of oil state North Dakota — was appointed Trump’s energy tsar on Friday.
Burgum, who will also serve as interior secretary, will be tasked with co-ordinating Trump’s energy agenda across government agencies and enacting a sweeping deregulation plan to boost fossil fuel supplies.
“America is blessed with vast amounts of ‘Liquid Gold’ and other valuable Minerals and Resources, right beneath our feet,” Trump said in a statement on Friday announcing Burgum’s appointment.
“We will ‘DRILL BABY DRILL’, expand ALL forms of Energy production to grow our Economy, and create good-paying jobs,” he said in the statement.
On top of its role overseeing exports, the Department of Energy is responsible for the nuclear weapons programme, environmental clean-ups and scientific research and development through its oversight of the country’s national laboratories.
Jennifer Granholm, Biden’s energy secretary, has played a prominent role promoting the Inflation Reduction Act, the president’s landmark climate law, which Trump has vowed to repeal.
Granholm told the FT any efforts to unpick the legislation, which earmarked billions of dollars in tax credits for clean energy would be equivalent to “stabbing ourselves because it would be so foolish”.