Wright, a private sector energy executive, is on track to fill one of the most critical roles in fulfilling Trump’s ambitious plans for his second term.
President-elect Donald Trump announced on Nov. 16 that he would nominate Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy in his second term.
“I am thrilled to announce that Chris Wright will be joining my Administration as both United States Secretary of Energy, and Member of the newly formed Council of National Energy,” Trump wrote in a statement posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Wright, a private sector energy executive, is on track to fill one of the most critical roles in Trump’s second term, after the president-elect promised to massively increase American energy production during his second term to combat inflation.
Here’s what you should know about the nominee.
1. He’s an MIT Grad
Wright was born and raised in Colorado, and is still based in Denver.
Wright studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), among the nation’s most elite STEM-focused institutions, from 1982 to 1985, according to his LinkedIn page.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the school, Wright briefly studied at the University of California in 1985.
He ultimately returned to MIT to complete his graduate work in electrical engineering, graduating in 1987.
2. He Was a Major Player in the ‘Shale Revolution’
A few years after he graduated from MIT, Wright formed Pinnacle Technologies, serving as its founder and CEO from 1992 until 2006.
Wright played a leading role in the “Shale Revolution,” which describes the period in the late 1990s and into the 2000s when technological developments made the extraction of energy from deposits of shale economically feasible.
In the 2000s and moving into the 2010s, Wright played a pivotal role in improving the technology for hydraulic fracturing, better known by the term “fracking.”
While Wright isn’t commonly considered the most important player in the move toward shale drilling—that accolade belongs to businessman George P. Mitchell, the “father of fracking”—he did engineer innovations that vastly increased the cost-effectiveness of the method.
By Joseph Lord
