President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Energy has amassed a fortune in the fossil fuel business, sits on the board of a nuclear reactor company and has played a notable role in the development of geothermal power.
It’s a lengthy job history, and helps explain why Trump tapped Chris Wright for the job. But it’s unclear how much Wright will distance himself from these interests if the Senate ultimately agrees to let him run the Energy Department.
And even if he does, critics say, Wright still will be in position to boost the oil and gas industry that made him a mint.
His biggest potential conflict of interest is with Liberty Energy, a Colorado-based business that provides hydraulic fracturing services. Wright founded the company in 2011 and serves as its CEO and board chair. He also holds about 2.6 million shares in Liberty — worth more than $40 million based on the current stock price.
On the day Trump announced Wright as his choice to serve as Energy secretary, Wright filed a document with the Securities and Exchange Commission that confirmed he would leave his leadership posts at Liberty. The company’s current president, Ron Gusek, then would take the helm.
It’s an open question, however, as to what happens to Wright’s holdings with the company.
Under federal ethics rules, Wright would be required to sell his shares in Liberty and other energy companies within 180 days if confirmed by the Senate. But Trump could grant Wright a waiver that would allow Wright to keep his investments.
Typically, Cabinet secretary nominees divest from any holdings that could be affected by their leadership of an agency within the first few months after confirmation.
For example, when former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson served as Trump’s first secretary of State, he sold off his shares in the oil giant while benefiting from a significant tax break. The federal tax code allows incoming administration officials to avoid paying capital gains tax when they divest their holdings, as long as it placed in specific financial vehicles such as a Treasury bond.
Wright has not said what he would do. A Liberty spokesperson referred all questions about Wright’s financial holdings and potential conflicts of interest to the Trump administration transition team. A transition team spokesperson declined to address whether Wright would entirely divest all of his energy stock holdings.
“All nominees and appointees will comply with the ethical obligations of their respective agencies,” said Brian Hughes, a Trump transition spokesperson, in a statement.
Trump himself will return to the White House with a host of business conflicts of interests that will be directly affected by his tenure, including holdings in a cryptocurrency company, a social media company and more.
But Trump has not announced any plans to divest his shares of those companies nor has he talked about waivers during the ongoing transition period before he takes office.
In his first administration, Trump did seek a waiver for retired Marine Gen. James Mattis to serve as his first Defense secretary. That’s because former military officers are required to wait seven years before they are eligible to head the Pentagon under federal law. President Joe Biden did the same for retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, his Defense secretary.
Historically, it would be expected that an agency head would divest of any holdings or appointments that would present the appearance of a conflict of interest, said Richard Painter, chief ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush.
However, Painter said it’s a “different world” under Trump. Still, he expects Wright would not want to run afoul of any criminal statutes if he tries to take an action that would directly benefit his bottom line.
“I don’t see any way that you can do your job as secretary of the Energy Department without getting rid of energy stocks,” he said.
Wright has made some moves recently as it relates to his Liberty shares.
He sold 40,000 shares of Liberty stock worth about $750,000 the week of Election Day, according to SEC filings. The filings show the stock value was soaring at that time.
Ties to mineral rights, geothermal and nuclear power
Liberty is one of Wright’s several links to the energy sector.
On a broad business level, Liberty has invested $10 million in Fervo Energy, a geothermal company. Fervo also has received a grant from DOE worth up to $60 million, as well as approvals for a Utah geothermal well project that would generate 8 megawatts of power.
On a more personal level, Wright sits on the board of Oklo, a California-based company that is developing small modular nuclear reactors — though he does not have any reported investments in the company.
Oklo has received multiple approvals and grants from DOE, including a recent one to recycle spent nuclear fuel to power the reactors, as its advanced fission project advances.
An Oklo spokesperson said Wright would resign from the board if he is confirmed by the Senate.
He also is on the board of EMX Royalty, a company that specializes in locating and purchasing mineral rights to deposits around the world, including some in the United States.
Even if he distances himself from all industry connections, there will still be questions about his independence, experts said.
While divesting Liberty shares and resigning from all boards would assuage some conflict of interest concerns, there could still be worries about whether Wright is acting in the public interest — rather than just that of the oil and gas industry, said Archon Fung, a government ethics expert and professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
“Consider the revolving door of somebody coming from industry and going into government,” he said. “Even if they do divest all of their holdings and take care of the first order conflict of interest, you may still worry that somebody coming from industry is pretty captured with a certain perspective about what the public interest is and how to get there.”
In a recent SEC filing, Liberty outlined how climate concerns and financial investments in low-carbon industries hurts its bottom line. Such disclosures are required as part of the SEC climate disclosure rule, which was finalized in March and is now bogged down in court.
Liberty is part of a lawsuit over the rule, along with other energy companies and Republican attorneys general.
“[Environmental, social and governance] and climate change issues may cause consumer preference to shift toward other alternative sources of energy, lowering demand for oil and natural gas and consequently lowering demand for our services,” the document states.
In addition to the lawsuit, Wright criticized the climate disclosure rule in a congressional hearing in April.
“The climate rule’s true purpose is to regulate climate change, not protect investors and/or the public interest in maintaining the health of America’s capital markets,” Wright told the House Financial Services Committee. “For that reason, among others, the climate rule is unlawful.”
Wright has a long history of publicly attacking the climate science that undergirds regulations on his industry.
He has claimed the United States is “not in the midst of an energy transition” to renewable energy and has said wind and solar will harm humanity by making the energy grid less reliable.
Granholm faced questions, too
Wright’s criticism of wind and solar power — coupled with his support of fossil fuels — suggest Wright could take the Energy Department in a radically different direction.
The Biden administration’s climate policies, as well as the Inflation Reduction Act, have steered tens of billions of dollars in DOE spending toward a range of wind, solar and other projects designed to cut emissions. The Energy Department grants and loans have funded electric vehicle manufacturing facilities, battery factories and more.
Wright has been critical of such policies, particularly support for EVs, which would cut demand for oil and gas that has made his fortune.
Only Congress can roll back the Inflation Reduction Act, but Wright could block funding for EV chargers and battery factories that have not been fully approved, including battery plants in Kentucky and Tennessee and an EV factory in Georgia. He could also eliminate programs designed to steer consumers toward EVs and could refuse to distribute funds that have not already been sent.
Wright has used his position as a fracking CEO to attack EVs and has made it clear that he views climate policies as a waste. In an investor filing from August, Wright’s Liberty stated that “Electric vehicles are not ‘climate policies’ or part of an ‘energy transition.’”
Wright wouldn’t be the first Energy secretary to face questions about independence. The financial holdings of current Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm also raised conflict of interest claims during her tenure.
Granholm previously sat on the board of — and owned up to $5 million worth of shares — in Proterra, an EV manufacturer that Biden took a virtual tour of, and promoted, as he ramped up government support for EVs.
She divested her holdings in 2021, within the required 180-day period, but congressional Republicans nonetheless criticized her for not doing it sooner and called for an investigation of her Proterra investment.
Republicans also called for an inquiry into Granholm’s investments in 2023, after she revealed that her husband had previously undisclosed shares in Ford Motor.
Environmentalists — who were largely silent about Granholm’s entanglements — have been more vocal about their concerns with Wright.
“The DOE must inform its policies based on the best available science, not the financial interests of its Secretary,” said Jeff Deyette, deputy director of the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“Wright’s roles as CEO of a major fracking company and board member of Oklo, a nuclear reactor company that receives millions from the DOE, pose serious questions about conflicts of interest.”
Reporter Timothy Cama contributed.
This story also appears in Energywire.
