Washington (February 3, 2025) - Senator Edward J. Markey, a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, today released the following statement after the U.S. Senate confirmed Chris Wright, most recently the CEO of fossil fuel company Liberty Energy, to head the Department of Energy.

“Chris Wright is a bought-and-paid-for fossil fuel industry executive and hasn’t met a tract of land or aquifer of water he wouldn’t despoil through fracking,” said Senator Markey. “We need federal agencies helmed by responsible, qualified executives without blatant conflicts of interest, not individuals who force their employees to drink fracking fluid for fun. Chris Wright at Energy, alongside Zeldin at EPA and Burgum at Interior, will use his position to push expensive and polluting fossil fuels on the American people for the benefit of his Big Oil and Big Gas allies. Our federal agencies are already being forced by Trump and Elon Musk to illegally ignore laws passed by Congress, and Chris Wright will be nothing more than another henchman for the billionaire class at the expense of the health and pocketbooks of working families.”

On January 16, Senators Markey and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) reintroduced the Banning In Government Oil Industry Lobbyists (BIG OIL) from the Cabinet Act, which would prohibit the appointment of executive officers and lobbyists of fossil fuel entities or trade associations as the heads or political appointees of certain government departments that work on issues related to American energy policy for a ten-year period.

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