The U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed Chris Wright to serve as Secretary of Energy in President Donald Trump's administration.
The final vote was 59-38. Eight Democrats, including both senators from Colorado, voted in favor.
Wright, the founder and CEO of Denver-based fossil fuel company Liberty Energy, is known as a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking. He has pledged to cut his ties to the energy industry following his confirmation.
Wright has advocated for increased fossil fuel production to address poverty issues, characterized environmental energy policies under Democrats as a "green new scam" and pledged at confirmation hearings to pursue President Trump's energy agenda.
RELATED STORY | Senate confirms former ND Gov. Doug Burgum as secretary of the Interior
Wright will also serve as a member of a to-be-formed council on national energy priorities.
That group will include "all departments and agencies involved in the permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation, transportation, of all forms of American energy," Trump said in a statement when he nominated Wright. "This council will oversee the path to U.S. energy dominance by cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investments across all sectors of the economy, and by focusing on innovation over longstanding, but totally unnecessary, regulation."
