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.”
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Donald Trump’s pick for energy secretary says ‘there is no climate crisis’
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.
“I’m one of those people needlessly enriched by [the] bad energy policy environment we live in today.”
“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.
Wright is the CEO of Liberty Energy, a major oil and gas service provider that launched during America’s fracking boom more than a decade ago. Around 10 percent of total US primary energy production comes from wells fracked by Liberty, according to the company.
In a video posted by the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation last year, Wright refers to “irrationally restrictive policies against the production of oil and natural gas” that “do nothing to change the demand for oil and natural gas,” he claims. “Our business today is the most profitable it’s ever been. As I say, I’m one of those people needlessly enriched by [the] bad energy policy environment we live in today. I don’t celebrate that. In fact, I adamantly oppose it.”
Trump campaigned on a Republican platform that says simply, “We will DRILL, BABY, DRILL.” Wright will “be a key leader, driving innovation [and] cutting red tape,” Trump said on Truth Social announcing the appointment, which still needs to be confirmed by the Senate, over the weekend. He also said Wright would join a new “Council of National Energy” tasked with “focusing on INNOVATION over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation.”
A biography of Wright included with Trump’s statement says the prospective Secretary of Energy is a “self-described tech nerd turned entrepreneur” who “embraces all energy sources if they are abundant, affordable, and reliable” and has worked in the fossil fuel, nuclear, solar, and geothermal industries. Liberty has invested in the geothermal energy startup Fervo Energy, which is working with Google to provide electricity for data centers in Nevada.
Wright’s appointment could also be a boon for nuclear energy. He sits on the board of Oklo, a company developing advanced nuclear reactors, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Tech companies have signed a slew of nuclear energy deals this year to try to satiate growing electricity demand from AI data centers. Trump’s Agenda 47 says he’ll “support nuclear energy production… by modernizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, working to keep existing power plants open, and investing in innovative small modular reactors.” On a related note, Trump’s pick to lead deregulatory efforts at the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, said he wants to “make America the AI capital of the world.”
The fossil fuel industry is still home base for Wright, however. “Chris Wright has a special connection as a fellow MIT alum and vocal promoter of the oil and natural gas industry,” Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance that is made up of oil and gas companies, said in an emailed statement.
Wright’s sales pitch for methane, marketed by the industry as natural gas, is typically that it’s an affordable source of energy. “My dedication to bettering human lives remains steadfast, with a focus on making American energy more affordable, reliable, and secure,” Wright said in a post on X.
But tumbling prices for renewable energy infrastructure have made onshore wind and solar farms cheaper sources of electricity than fossil fuels in most of the world. “If we turn our back on the cheapest forms of new energy – like solar and wind power – it will make energy more expensive for American consumers,” Environmental Defense Fund executive director Amanda Leland said in a statement. “Any nominee, including Chris Wright, who ignores the stakes in this global clean energy race – or fails to recognize the urgent challenge of climate change – should concern all of us.”
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NASA wants SpaceX and Blue Origin to deliver cargo to the moon
The agency wants Elon Musk’s SpaceX to use its Starship cargo lander to deliver a pressurized rover to the Moon “no earlier” than 2032, while Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will be tasked with delivering a lunar surface habitat no sooner than 2033. Both launches will support NASA’s Artemis missions, which aim to bring humans back to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years.
Both companies are developing human landing systems for Artemis missions — SpaceX for Artemis III and Blue Origin for Artemis V. NASA later asked both companies to develop cargo-hauling variants of those landers, capable of carrying 26,000 to 33,000 pounds of equipment and other materials to the Moon.
NASA says it will issue proposals to SpaceX and Blue Origin at the beginning of next year.
“Having two lunar lander providers with different approaches for crew and cargo landing capability provides mission flexibility while ensuring a regular cadence of Moon landings for continued discovery and scientific opportunity,” Stephen D. Creech, NASA’s assistant deputy associate administrator for the Moon to Mars program, said in the announcement.
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Brazil leads new international effort against climate lies
Brazil and the United Nations launched a new international effort to combat disinformation on climate change. They announced the Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change during the G20 Leaders’ Summit taking place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
It’s a collaboration between governments and international organizations to boost research on misinformation swirling online and around the globe that they fear could slow action on climate change. There isn’t much information available yet, but they say they’ll fund nonprofit efforts to counter that spread of lies.
“Countries cannot tackle this problem individually,” President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said in a press release.
“Countries cannot tackle this problem individually.”
Only Chile, Denmark, France, Morocco, the United Kingdom, and Sweden have joined Brazil in the initiative so far. Countries that make the commitment are expected to contribute to a fund administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The initial goal is to get more countries on board and raise $10 to 15 million over the next three years. The money is then supposed to be distributed to nonprofit organizations as grants to support research and public awareness campaigns on climate disinformation.
They haven’t yet named any specific groups they plan to work with; “calls for partnerships” are forthcoming. Some environmental organizations are already working together to study disinformation and push for measures to stop its spread, like the Climate Action Against Disinformation coalition that publishes reports on misinformation trends and advocates for more stringent content moderation.
A webpage for the new global initiative says environmental disinformation is “increasingly spreading through social media, messaging apps, and generative AI.” That has “serious” consequences, it says: “it undermines scientific consensus, obstructs authorities’ ability to respond effectively to the crisis, and threatens the safety of journalists and environmental defenders working on the frontlines.”
FEMA employees faced violent threats on social media in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in the US, for example. Accounts spewing misinformation about the storm and FEMA were also tied to content denying climate change, according to an analysis by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) in October. Posts baselessly accused FEMA of seizing private property and confiscating donations — lies that risked deterring storm survivors from applying for assistance, and that raised fears that FEMA staff might face attacks.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres also voiced his concerns during remarks today with both the G20 summit and a UN conference on climate change currently underway. “We must also take on climate disinformation,” Guterres said. “Our climate is at a breaking point.”
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Amazon and SpaceX attack US labor watchdog in court
Amazon and SpaceX are seeking to hamstring the National Labor Relations Board, asking a court to declare its processes for upholding labor law unconstitutional. But judges on a three-person panel appeared skeptical when the companies presented their arguments Monday.
In two separate cases before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the two companies argued that the NLRB is unlawfully forcing them to participate in administrative law proceedings over alleged anti-labor actions. The Amazon case centers around whether it’s required to bargain with the union at its JFK 8 fulfillment center on Staten Island, while the SpaceX case involves a charge by former employees who claimed they were fired after being critical of CEO Elon Musk.
A ruling in favor of the companies could undermine the NLRB’s power to enforce protections for workers. It comes just as vocal pro-union President Joe Biden is leaving office and deregulation-friendly President-elect Donald Trump takes over. Trump notably counts Musk among his chief allies after his massive fundraising push. The NLRB is an independent agency with five board members appointed by the president to 5-year terms.
During oral arguments, the judges mostly prodded attorneys on the finer points of the companies’ decisions to appeal, and the timeline of their objections. At one point, Judge James Graves Jr., an Obama appointee, expressed doubt that Amazon had even met the conditions for an appeal — suggesting it should have waited on the ruling from the district court first. Two days after Amazon’s notice of appeal, the district court denied Amazon’s request for a temporary restraining order on its NLRB proceedings.
Both companies are seeking to short-circuit the NLRB’s proceedings with a court order
George W. Bush-appointed Judge Priscilla Richman similarly pressed SpaceX’s counsel Michael Kenneally about why the company rushed to an appeal, rather than letting the case progress in a lower court. Kenneally said SpaceX waited as long as it felt it could to bring its challenge and accused the government of leaning on procedural arguments because it couldn’t defend the NLRB’s constitutionality. Graves appeared skeptical. “That sounds to me about like the argument that, ‘well, procedure doesn’t matter if I win on the merits, so just skip right over procedure,’” he said.
Both companies are seeking to short-circuit the NLRB’s proceedings with a court order, which requires demonstrating this would cause them irreparable harm. But in Amazon’s case, NLRB counsel Tyler Wiese called the company’s deadline for the district court “imaginary,” and said, “merely proceeding through an administrative process is not irreparable harm.”
Amazon and SpaceX both argue that the NLRB’s administrative proceedings are tainted because its board members or administrative law judges are unconstitutionally insulated from removal. They point to Article II of the Constitution, which says the president must “take care that the Laws be faithfully executed,” which they say includes removing officials.
Amazon also says the NLRB is violating the Seventh Amendment, which protects the right to a jury trial in certain civil cases. It argues that the NLRB shouldn’t be allowed to decide on financial remedies related to the case because it would deny the company due process. Cox said the board itself “improperly interfered with the [union] election by exercising its prosecutorial authority,” so failing to stop the proceedings would let the NLRB as as judge and prosecutor.
The NLRB says it feels confident in a 1937 Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act. “It is nothing new for big companies to challenge the authority of the NLRB to enforce workers’ rights so as not to be held accountable for their violations of the National Labor Relations Act,” NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said in a statement. “While the current challenges require the NLRB to expend scarce resources defending against them, we’ve seen that the results of these kinds of challenges is ultimately a delay in justice, but that ultimately justice does prevail.”
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