Donald Trump appoints climate skeptic entrepreneur as US energy minister

Chris Wright, boss of a company specializing in hydrocarbon extraction techniques, is a self-proclaimed climate skeptic for whom “there is no climate crisis”.

After the Minister of Health who believes in the conspiracy theory of “chemtrails”, or the head of protected natural areas who is also close to the oil industry, Donald Trump continues the paradoxical appointments. Latest: the president-elect of the United States announced his desire to appoint Chris Wright, CEO of a hydraulic fracturing company and climate skeptic, as Minister of Energy.

“As Secretary of Energy, Chris will be a key leader, driving innovation, reducing administrative barriers, and ushering in a new 'golden age of American prosperity and world peace.'”says Donald Trump in a press release. “Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American shale revolution that fueled American energy independence and transformed global energy markets and geopolitics”underlines the Republican Party politician.

Chris Wright runs the company Liberty Energy, which specializes in hydraulic fracturing, a highly polluting method of extracting hydrocarbons. He claimed in a video in January 2023 that“there is no climate crisis”a statement disapproved by the overwhelming majority of specialists on the subject. “The term carbon pollution is scandalous” because all life depends on carbon dioxide, he asserted, without recalling that too high a concentration of carbon accelerates the greenhouse effect and causes global warming. He also refuted the terms “clean energy or dirty energy”noting that “all energy sources have both positive and negative impacts on the world” – without specifying that their impact in terms of CO2 emissions, and therefore on the greenhouse effect, is extremely different depending on the way in which they are exploited.

Chris Wright will also be a member of the brand new National Energy Council (NEC), the creation of which was announced Friday by Donald Trump, and whose mission will be to “overseeing the path to US energy dominance”. His candidacy was supported by companies in the oil sector, underlines the Financial Times.

Since the 19th century, the Earth's average temperature has warmed by 1.1°C. Scientists have established with certainty that this increase is due to human activities, which consume fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). This warming, unprecedented in its speed, threatens the future of our societies and biodiversity. But solutions – renewable energies, sobriety, reduced meat consumption – exist. Discover our answers to your questions about the climate crisis.