[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 22 (Monday, February 3, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S534]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    NOMINATION OF CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT

  Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I am pleased to come to the floor today 
to urge my colleagues to confirm Chris Wright to be Secretary of 
Energy.
  Mr. Wright has demonstrated tremendous leadership in the energy 
industry over the past more than 30 years. He is a true pioneer in 
advancing new technologies that unlocked the shale energy revolution in 
our country.
  When I started as Governor of North Dakota in 2000, our State was 
producing about 100,000 barrels of oil per day, but that production was 
declining. We produced from the old traditional vertical wells, going 
down as much as 2 miles in some cases, some cases more. So we had to do 
something different. We started a new energy plan. We called it EmPower 
North Dakota to promote the development of all of our energy resources 
to help make our State the energy powerhouse that it is today.
  We developed the right regulatory and tax climate to encourage energy 
development. We worked to bring talent to our State with the best 
entrepreneurial mindset. That included energy leaders like Mr. Wright, 
people that have the latest and greatest understanding of new 
technologies and the power to innovate.
  Mr. Wright has said he became fascinated with energy at a young age, 
working on fusion energy and later solar energy during his studies at 
MIT and then graduate school at UC Berkeley.
  He started Pinnacle Technologies, the company that actually started 
the hydraulic fracturing mapping industry. He was a pioneer in that 
effort, helping to locate more commercially viable shale energy 
reserves. He then started another company, Liberty Energy, to unlock 
the potential of those reserves and to do it with the smallest 
footprint and the best environmental stewardship. Mr. Wright worked to 
advance new breakthroughs in hydraulic fracturing, commercializing new 
technology to improve the productivity of oil wells in the Bakken shale 
formation.
  As a result of innovators like Mr. Wright, North Dakota went from 
producing less than 100,000 barrels of oil a day when I started as 
Governor to a high of 1.5 million barrels of oil a day.
  Our Nation's vast energy reserves of coal, oil, and natural gas are 
not a liability; they are one of our most important strategic assets. 
Each additional barrel of U.S. oil offsets production from Russia, from 
Iran, from Venezuela, and from other adversaries with little to no 
regard for environmental standards.
  Mr. Wright understands that affordable and reliable energy is 
foundational to our economy, to our quality life, and, in fact, our 
national security. As energy demand continues to grow both at home and 
abroad, Mr. Wright knows it takes innovation, not regulation, to rise 
to this challenge. For example, in North Dakota, we are leading the way 
to crack the code on carbon capture technologies.
  Mr. Wright will bring the right vision to the Department of Energy, 
supporting the deployment of all these new technologies so that we can 
truly become not only energy independent, energy secure, but, in fact, 
energy dominant.
  Mr. Wright received strong bipartisan support from our Energy and 
Natural Resources Committee, and I urge all of my colleagues on both 
sides of the aisle to support his confirmation to be the next Secretary 
for the Department of Energy.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.

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