Oil executive Chris Wright, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Energy Department, has argued that climate change has not fueled more frequent and severe wildfires — a claim at odds with the scientific consensus.
Wright’s arguments drew scrutiny from Senate Democrats during his confirmation hearing Wednesday, as deadly wildfires continue to ravage the Los Angeles area, destroying thousands of homes and killing at least 25 people.
In a 2021 appearance on the PetroNerds podcast, Wright criticized mainstream media outlets for drawing a connection between wildfires and warming. Wildfires are “a major thing in the news now,” he said. “‘It’s climate change. It’s climate change.’ … The short answer: It is not.”
Wright, head of the fracking company Liberty Energy, has also disputed this connection in more recent LinkedIn posts, according to a review of his comments conducted by the environmental group Evergreen Action and shared with The Washington Post.
In the summer of 2023, as smoke from Canadian wildfires engulfed the East Coast, Wright wrote on LinkedIn that “the hype over wildfires is just hype to justify” harmful climate policies. He linked to a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish political scientist and author who contends that experts have overstated the negative impacts of climate change.
I haven’t heard climate denier Bjorn Lomborg’s name bandied about in a while. (Granted, I may just not have been reading the right stuff.) And I can’t say that I expect anything less of an oil man.
But still. I’m very worried about the kids. I’m not going to see the very worst of this but they are. It’s just devastating that we can’t seem to do what’s necessary to at least slow this process down. People like this corrupt liar obviously don’t love their own children. There’s no other way to explain it.