By Justine Calma , a senior science reporter covering energy and the environment with more than a decade of experience. She is also the host of Hell or High Water: When Disaster Hits Home, a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals.
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Energy is fossil fuel executive Chris Wright — who has misleadingly claimed on LinkedIn that “there is no climate crisis, and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.”
Hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, and other disasters exacerbated by climate change are already hitting the US. And renewable energy capacity is on course to more than double globally by the end of the decade.
Nevertheless, Wright is a staunch evangelist for fossil fuels who consistently rejects mainstream climate science. While Wright also has ties to the nuclear energy industry, clean energy advocates say that with Trump’s cabinet picks, the US is losing ground in the race to deploy renewable energy and fight climate change. Oil and gas companies, meanwhile, are patting themselves on the back.
“Picking someone like Chris Wright is a clear sign that Trump wants to turn the U.S. into a pariah petrostate,” said Jean Su, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s energy justice program, in an emailed statement.