Wright is the right choice for secretary of energy

OPINION:

There are few areas where President Biden has failed so spectacularly as on energy.

The Biden administration unleashed the Environmental Protection Agency on the private sector and allowed the fewest offshore drilling leases in American history. The results? Surging gasoline, electricity and home heating costs have worsened inflation.

Thankfully, President-elect Donald Trump is taking a different approach. He has decided that someone with a background in energy should run energy.

To this effect, Mr. Trump has nominated Chris Wright as his energy secretary. Mr. Wright has a master’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT. He’s the founder of Liberty Energy, the world’s second-largest fracking company, which provides energy to millions of Americans, and he is a strong supporter of expanding the use of nuclear power.

Mr. Trump’s optimism regarding his nominee was palpable in this pick’s announcement. “As Secretary of Energy, Chris will be a key leader, driving innovation, cutting red tape, and ushering in a new ’Golden Age of American Prosperity and Global Peace,’” Mr. Trump said.

That is because, in part, Liberty is not the mega-polluting evil conglomerate that progressives are trying to make it seem. Since 2013, every new fracking fleet it has built has been low emission. Liberty has worked to decrease the environmental impact of natural gas extraction and be good neighbors to surrounding communities by lowering the resulting noise and dust, reducing silica exposure and other potential harms for on-site workers.

Yet even as he’s worked to implement cleaner energy, Mr. Wright has also been instrumental in pushing back against anti-fracking hysteria. In 2019, he drank fracking fluid to show it wasn’t dangerous. He’s also assailed the term “carbon pollution” as misleading — and he’s right. If carbon dioxide is a pollutant, then every single breathing animal is a threat to the planet.

The last thing the Democrats want is common sense at the Department of Energy. Their attack dogs have zeroed in on an interview Mr. Wright gave to a conservative media outlet where he said that “probably almost as many positive changes as there are negative changes” have resulted from climate change.

Among the positive changes that can result from higher temperatures, Mr. Wright listed greater plant growth, more agricultural productivity and fewer deaths from extremely cold weather.

Science suggests he has a point. Greenhouses pump more carbon dioxide in to stimulate plant growth in a process called carbon dioxide fertilization. More carbon dioxide also allows plants to use water more efficiently, boosting yields and reducing inputs.

But such a nuanced take runs counter to extreme climate change orthodoxy, which holds that rising temperatures are going to kill us all unless we atone. Complexity, let alone debate, is not on the agenda.

When historians write about the Biden administration, there will no doubt be a section on its destructive policies regarding energy production. Rather than harness the “black gold” beneath our feet to keep gasoline, heating oil and other forms of energy affordable, the White House has restricted drilling and spent billions on experimental alternative schemes that seem destined to fail in the long run. That drove up costs for farmers, truckers and manufacturers, which in turn drove up the cost of almost every good in the nation.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Wright promise to correct this course. Expanding energy production will increase supply, and prices will fall. This is basic economics as much as it is common sense.

While Mr. Trump advocates an “all of the above” approach to energy, his detractors are adamant that alternative energy is the only way forward — no matter the cost to American consumers. Mr. Wright embodies the president-elect’s view.

Progressives’ problem is that Mr. Wright is skeptical of their preferred sources of clean energy, or “renewables.” Mr. Wright has pointed out that wind turbines and solar panels require massive amounts of land and battery storage for when the wind stops blowing or it gets cloudy.

These energy sources are also not really that clean. The rechargeable batteries in electric vehicles, for example, depend on cobalt from African mines, which brutalize the landscape and whose working conditions one expert compared to modern-day slavery.

We can’t run a country on fantasies about green energy. Today, these energy sources are inefficient and costly, require government subsidies and cannot meet a growing economy’s energy demands. Relying solely on renewables would leave American consumers and businesses vulnerable to blackouts and skyrocketing energy costs, all while increasing dependence on foreign resources for critical materials.

Instead, we need a balanced energy policy prioritizing affordability, reliability and national security. By embracing innovation and leveraging all energy sources, including nuclear and clean natural gas, we can chart a path forward that protects the environment and the prosperity of the American people.

Lower energy costs are a core foundation of Mr. Trump’s platform. Chris Wright is eminently qualified to do the job successfully. He is the right man for the job and deserves quick confirmation by the Senate.

• Isaac Orr is the founder and vice president of research at Always On Energy Research. He is a former policy fellow specializing in energy and environmental policy at the Center of the American Experiment.