Chris Wright was confirmed to be the Energy Minister

The Senate Chris Wright confirmed the leadership of the US Department of Energy on Monday, and the previous executive power authority in a major position to help form energy policies Trump Trump.

Mr. Wright, founder and CEO of Liberty Energy, a browsing company, was confirmed by a vote from 59 to 38, with the support of all the attendees present and less Democrats. It will be the seventeenth Minister of Energy, a position created in 1977.

He has Confirmation sessionMr. Wright said his top priority was “launching” local energy production, including LNG and nuclear powers. Democrats also told that it believed that climate change was a “global challenge that we need to solve” and that it would support the development of renewable energy such as wind and solar energy.

At the same time, Mr. Wright said he would “work tirelessly” to support Mr. Trump’s “bold” agenda. The president often refused climate change as a trick, obsessed winds and solar power and said he wanted to expand the use of oil, gas and coal, which burns climate change.

The Ministry of Energy plays a major role in developing new energy technologies. The agency supervises a A network of 17 national laboratories That is taking place advanced research as well as a A strong loan office This has supported dozens of low -carbon energy projects, including the batteries in Ohio and Tennessee and giant nuclear reactors in Georgia.

Mr. Wright will also supervise approvals for liquefied gas export stations, which the Baiden administration has tried to slow the industry groups. Mr. Trump has already ordered the Ministry of Energy to re -review the proposed export facilities.

The Ministry of Energy is a sprawling agency. About 80 percent of the section An annual budget of $ 52 billion It is directed towards maintaining the nuclear nation arsenal, cleaning environmental chaos from the Cold War and conducting research in areas such as high -energy physics.

According to the Biden Administration, the administration supported new clean energy technologies like Advanced nuclear energyand Earth thermal energy enhancementand Green hydrogen fueland The next generation batteries And more. With the support of a new financing from Congress, he issued tens of billions in loans and grants to everything from Low carbon cement companies For energy companies Build new transport lines.

In his confirmation session, Mr. Wright mostly refused to enter into details about how to manage the department.

Some conservative groups urged Mr. Wright to redirect or even close the agency Loan Programs OfficeThat granted approximately $ 400 billion of loan authority by Congress to bring promising energy technologies to the market. According to the Biden Administration, the office ended more than 60.6 billion dollars of loans and loan guarantees for companies that were latering mining, restarting a closed nuclear factory, and converting solar energy and solar energy into hydrogen fuel and more. It also issued 47 billion dollars in police loans that have not been completed.

As of January 17, there are still 160 companies Searching for more than 200 billion dollars in loans And loan guarantees. But the loan office has been largely suspended since Mr. Trump took office, and it is not clear what will happen to these requests.

Most of the main environmental groups and many Democrats opposed Mr. Wright, saying that he reduced the dangers of warming planet. In a publication on social media in 2023, Mr. Wright wrote“There is no climate crisis, and we are not in the midst of energy transmission, too.” In Podcast last year, he said that climate change would have “a slow, modest effect on two or three generations from now.”

On the podcast and in the speeches, Mr. Wright repeatedly made An ethical issue of fossil fuelOn the pretext that the poorest people in the world need to reach oil, gas and coal to enjoy the benefits of modern life that rich countries consider to be a minor.

However, some Democrats in the Senate joined Republicans in voting to agree to the nomination of Mr. Wright. Among them are Robin Galigo from Arizona, Michael Bennett, John Heknlobber from Colorado, Maji Hassan and Jin Shaheen from New Hampshire, Ben Ray Logan and Martin Heinrich from New Mexico, as well as Angus King, who is usually independent of Maine with Democrats.

Mr. Heinrich said last month: “While I do not agree with Mr. Wright on a number of issues, he committed to work with us in good faith” on issues such as investing in national laboratories and building high -voltage power generation lines.

Mr. Wright has graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has done graduate studies in solar energy at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, which created programs to measure liquid movement below the surface of the earth. The program helped in causing a trade revolution in shale gas.

Mr. Wright started in 2011, and the company with others worked on the Earth’s thermal energy and normative nuclear reactors.

Mr. Wright owns 2.6 million shares in the company, which is worth about $ 47 million on the basis of the closing share price on Monday. in Written statement to the Senate He promised to step down from Liberty Energy and strip his property within 90 days after his confirmation. According to his moral agreement, he is You are scheduled to get salaries His last reward from the company in March.

Lisa Friedman The reports contributed.