# Chris Wright

Christopher Allen Wright (born January 15, 1965) is an American government official, engineer, and businessman serving as the 17th United States secretary of energy since 2025. Before his appointment, he was the CEO of Liberty Energy, North America's second largest hydraulic fracturing company, and served on the boards of Oklo Inc., a nuclear technology company, and EMX Royalty Corp., a Canadian mineral rights and mining rights royalty payment company.
On November 16, 2024, President Donald Trump announced Wright as his nominee for the United States secretary of energy. He was confirmed by the United States Senate to the office on February 3, 2025 by a vote of 59–38. He was sworn in later that day. As a member of the Cabinet of the United States, the secretary is fifteenth in the line of succession to the presidency.

## Early and personal life

Wright was born in 1965 and grew up in Colorado. He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a master's degree in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was a graduate student in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and at MIT. Wright and his wife, Liz, live in Englewood, Colorado.

## Career

In 1992, Wright founded Pinnacle Technologies, a company involved in commercial shale gas production through fracking and served as its CEO until 2006. He was also chairman of Stroud Energy (current Stroud Exploration Company), another company involved in the production of shale gas, before he sold the company in 2006. In 2011, he founded Liberty Energy. As of February 2023, the company was valued at $2.8 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. As the CEO of Liberty Energy, Wright earned $5.6 million in 2023.
In 2019 Wright drank fracking fluid to demonstrate that it was not dangerous, and Liberty Energy promoted its "greener selections" for chemical additives. In a video posted to LinkedIn in January 2023, he said, "There is no climate crisis and we're not in the midst of an energy transition either". He claimed that the climate movement around the world was "collapsing under its own weight". He also said that the term "carbon pollution" is misleading.
Wright served on the board of directors for the Denver Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from January 2020 to April 2024.
In April 2024, he testified on the Securities and Exchange Commission's climate change rule from March 2024, which requires the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions, physical risks to climate change and transition risks. He called the rule unlawful "climate regulation promulgated under the Commission's seal", said that companies' risks associated with extreme weather were decreasing,$^{:9}$ and that millions of lives had been saved by reducing cold-related deaths.$^{:10}$
Wright has been on the board of directors of Oklo Inc., a company that designs small fast-neutron reactors, and EMX Royalty Corp., a Canadian royalty payment company for mineral rights and mining rights.

### Secretary of energy (2025-present)

On November 15, 2024, the Financial Times reported that Wright was the most likely candidate for United States secretary of energy in Donald Trump's second presidency; businessmen Ray Washburne and Paul Dabbar were also considered. He had donated $228,390 to Trump's joint fundraising committee in 2024. Republican senator John Barrasso praised Wright as an "energy innovator." He received several endorsements from Trump allies including American Energy Alliance president Thomas Pyle and Continental Resources chairman Harold Hamm. The next day, Trump announced he would nominate Wright as the United States secretary of energy, and he would serve on the National Energy Council if confirmed by the Senate. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources voted in favor of Wright's nomination in a vote of 15–6 on January 23, and the Senate confirmed him in a 59–38 vote on February 3; he was sworn in later the same day.