Chris Wright, a Denver businessman and President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Energy secretary, told U.S. senators Wednesday that, if confirmed, he would use the position to “unleash American energy at home and abroad.”

That message and others like it drew universal praise from the Republican members of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, setting him up for an easy confirmation, with Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, saying he hopes to have it wrapped up before the end of the month.

Wright faced fairly straightforward questions during his confirmation hearing and he appeared to have secured bipartisan support. Once confirmed, Wright would be tasked with administering U.S. energy policy, maintaining and protecting the nation’s nuclear stockpile, running 17 national laboratories and overseeing the department’s Loan Programs Office.

Wright is the founder and CEO of Colorado-based Liberty Energy, an oilfield services firm. Trump has said that Wright would also sit on the new National Energy Council, along with Interior secretary pick Doug Burgum, whom the committee is scheduled to hear from on Thursday.

Much of his hearing focused on the role the department plays in domestic energy policy.

In his opening statement, Wright said he would immediately focus his attention on three tasks: removing barriers to completing energy projects, accelerating the innovation work of the national laboratories and advancing American energy domestically and abroad.

“The security of our nation begins with energy,” Wright said. “Previous administrations have viewed energy as a liability, instead of the immense asset that it is. To compete globally, we must expand energy production, including commercial nuclear and liquefied natural gas, and cut the cost of energy for Americans.”

“President Trump shares my passion for energy and, if confirmed, I will work tirelessly to implement his bold agenda as an unabashed steward for all sources of affordable, reliable and secure American energy,” Wright also said. 

Indeed, Wright views the world as divided between the haves and have-nots — but with a specific eye toward access to energy, arguing that, instead of a “climate” agenda, America should focus on ensuring a wide array of cheap, abundant and sustainable energy sources that include geothermal, nuclear, oil and gas. He argued that this approach is the antidote to what he described as an “energy crisis,” in which a minority of the world’s population has access to abundant energy, while the rest lives in “energy poverty.”

The approach, which he outlined in several articles for Colorado Politics and The Denver Gazette, will likely serve as a philosophical guidepost as he takes on the department that handles U.S. energy diplomacy and administers the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which Trump has said he wants to replenish.

Wright, who grew up in Colorado, founded Liberty Energy in 2011. The company, which specializes in well completion services and is valued at $2.8 billion, has become one of North America’s leading hydraulic fracturing companies.

During the hearing, Republicans referenced his company’s Liberty Energy report released in January 2024, in which Wright refers to a need for energy realism to understand that fossil fuels continue to be the largest source of energy across the global economy and remain key to global prosperity. Lee said this view brings a “clear-headed perspective to the climate change dialogue.”

Wright’s stance has drawn opposition from environmental groups. Protesters repeatedly interrupted questions from Republican members and attempted to connect his company’s activities to the fires in and around Los Angeles that have burned thousands of homes and businesses.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., pressed Wright over a post on the social media platform X from 2023, where he said the “hype over wildfires is just hype to justify more impoverishment from bad government policies.” When pressed, Wright said that he stood by his past statement.

Wright said “climate change” is a real issue in response to questions from Democrats. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, described Wright’s stance as more subtle, characterizing it as recognizing “the tension between diminishing our reliance on fossil fuels and powering those 6 billion people who don’t have adequate energy resources today.” Wright agreed with King’s summation.

Wright said he hopes to support the work of the national laboratories, which he said could “secure America’s competitive edge and its security.” In response to a question from Padilla, Wright said that, if asked to not publish or withhold research, he “will follow the scientific method” and the “laws and statutes of our country.”

Wright expressed his support for geothermal power, saying that it has untapped potential as an energy source. Wright also said he hopes to be able to support improvements and expansion of the transmission grid, an issue that emerged as a sticking point last year as lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to advance a bill overhauling the federal permitting system.

Wright said that building new transmission lines and increasing the capacity of existing lines is “very important to meet this growing demand of energy and hopefully return to the good trend of a decline in the real cost of electricity and a growth in the reliability.”

Republicans on the committee signaled strong support for Wright on Wednesday. Most Democrats also indicated that they would likely not try to block his confirmation. 

The Washington Examiner and Associated Press contributed to this article.