Ahead of tomorrow’s Senate vote on the confirmation of Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright to serve as Secretary of Energy for the Trump administration, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) sent the following letter to members of the Senate.

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January 22, 2025

U.S. Senate

Washington, DC 20515

Re: Oppose Chris Wright’s Nomination to serve as Secretary of Energy

Dear Senator:

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) believes that everyone has a right to clean air, clean water, public lands, and a safe climate protected by a just and equitable democracy. Each year, LCV publishes the National Environmental Scorecard, which details the voting records of members of Congress on environmental legislation. The Scorecard is distributed to LCV members, concerned voters nationwide, and the media.

We urge you to oppose the nomination of Chris Wright for Secretary of Energy. Mr. Wright’s clear conflicts of interest, dismissal of critical climate science and impacts, and lack of government experience render him unfit to serve.

Mr. Wright is a wealthy Big Oil executive who would be overseeing his own industry if confirmed as Secretary of Energy. As CEO and Chairman of Liberty Energy, the world’s second largest fracking company, Mr. Wright has been a staunch advocate for fossil fuels despite their devastating health and environmental impacts. A top solicitation of the oil and gas industry has been for the federal government to swiftly approve LNG export terminals shipping the climate superpollutant to countries that are not our closest trading partners, and if confirmed, Mr. Wright would be the decisionmaker to make his oil and gas cronies’ wishes come true.

It is also deeply concerning that Mr. Wright has used his platform to question the validity of climate science and its very real, damaging impacts on communities, and stoke misinformation, including dismissing climate change-fueled wildfires, such as those currently ravaging Southern California, as “just hype.” As Secretary of Energy, Mr. Wright would supervise critical parts of our energy economy and oversee the control and cleanup of nuclear waste. However, Mr. Wright has no government experience and has never run an organization as large and complex as the Department of Energy. As confirmed in his hearing, Mr. Wright attended the oil and gas executives’ April 2024 dinner, well covered in the media, during which then-candidate Trump reportedly asked oil and gas executives for $1 billion toward his campaign in exchange for rolling back environmental protections. The message is clear: in nominating Mr. Wright, President Trump is putting Big Polluters over people.

For all these reasons, LCV urges you to oppose the nomination of Chris Wright for Secretary of Energy. LCV will strongly consider including this vote in our 2025 National Environmental Scorecard. If you would like more information, please reach out to a member of our government relations team.

Sincerely,

Gene Karpinski

President