Energy Sec. Wright issues Day-1 orders targeting oil reserves, Biden appliance rules, 'nuclear renaissance'

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Trump chooses Chris Wright as Energy secretary

President-elect Donald Trump nominated founder and CEO of Liberty Energy Chris Wright as Energy secretary, Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reports. 

In a wide-ranging departmental order late Wednesday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright called energy "the essential ingredient that enables everything we do" and ordered changes to how the agency will approach home appliances, nuclear power, gas exports and more.

"A highly energized society can bring health, wealth and opportunity for all," Wright said in the order, obtained by Fox News Digital.

While his order did not name former President Biden or any politician outside of President Donald Trump, several bullet points clearly sought to change custom from the previous administration.

Wright crafted a mantra of "Advance Energy Addition – Not Subratction" and noted how "great attention has been paid to the pursuing of a zero-carbon future."

"Net Zero policies raise energy costs for American families and businesses, threaten the reliability of the energy system and undermine our energy and national security," he said, signaling he would dispatch with such ‘green’ initiatives.

CHRIS WRIGHT CONFIRMED SECRETARY OF ENERGY

President Donald Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright (AP/Getty)

Wright also called for a "return to regular order" on Liquefied Natural Gas [LNG] exports. He said that as of Trump's inauguration, the department began considering pending applications for natural gas exports to countries that do not have a Free Trade Agreement [FTA] with the U.S. 

Wright has been a longtime advocate of hydraulic fracturing – famously going as far as drinking fracking fluid to prove environmentalist critics wrong about its effect on nature.

Pennsylvania and North Dakota are epicenters of fracking, while New York retains the subterranean resources to do so but is under a statewide ban.

Wright's order outlined plans to resupply the Strategic Petroleum Reserve – a crucial national security entity.

Former President Joe Biden had spent part of the nation’s SPR in what critics called a bid to assuage energy price spikes for political purposes. The SPR reached a record nadir of 148,000 barrels in July 2023, and last peaked at 726,000 in 2009. Trump's record was about 694,000 shortly after taking office in 2017.

Wright also ordered new attention be paid to the U.S.' nuclear stockpile, both in meeting Cold War legacy waste cleanup commitments and modernizing the atomic weapons as a tool for "peaceful use of nuclear technology."

"The long awaited American nuclear renaissance must launch during President Trump's administration," Wright added of the power source in general.

Energy Department Research & Development (R&D) efforts will prioritize affordable reliable and secure energy technologies including fossil fuels, advanced nuclear geothermal and hydropower, the order went on.

While the Biden administration and liberal governors have pursued crackdowns on home appliances they deem environmental unfriendly, Wright ordered a cost-benefit analysis be conducted for any new standards imposed.

Any CBA must consider the upfront cost of purchasing new products and reflect actual cost savings for American families."

The department will also exercise its legal authorities going forward to aid in the approval and construction of new, reliable energy infrastructure.

Wright, the CEO of Colorado oilfield services company Liberty Energy, addressed his new staff in remarks from the department's offices near Pierre L'Enfant Plaza in Washington.

Wright said he met President Donald Trump about a year ago, and the two businessmen connected over their support for unleashing American energy prowess and highlighting how U.S. energy dominance positively affects many other aspects of life.Wright said Trump had a "simple vision" that "energy is good and that we need more" of it, particularly domestically-sourced.

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"So we just connected. And he asked me, ‘Would you be secretary of energy?’ And I said, 'Boy, if I'm asked to serve my country, I don't have to think about that one.'"

He called the Energy Department the gem of the American government and said he has long been entranced by contemporary advancements in the field, from German chemist Otto Hahn splitting the atom in 1938 to Adm. Hyman Rickover creating the first nuclear-powered machines in submarines.

"I want to better energize our country, strengthen our country, advance science… and get the politics out of all of this."

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"Energy is not political: it is the basic infrastructure that allows us to live great lives, to allow whatever our dream is, whatever our vision is," he said.

Wright added that there is no such thing as clean or dirty energy, and that in reality, there is "no free lunch" when it comes to the byproducts of the production process: "It’s about tradeoffs."

Wright has also pledged to strengthen the power grid’s reliability and security.There have been blackouts occasionally in recent years from overtaxed grid areas, notably in California around 2001. 

There have also been security threats to energy transmission, including from a Catonsville, Maryland, woman who conspired to destroy the region’s power grid.

Then-FBI Director Christopher Wray said Sarah Beth Clendaniel "plotted to disable the power grid around the entire Baltimore region" in 2018, after becoming acquainted with a Florida man who espoused White supremacist "accelerationist" ideologies.