Trump picks ex-Texas governor for Energy Secretary post

U.S. president elect Donald Trump has selected former Texas governor Rick Perry as Secretary of the Department of Energy.

In the announcement on Wednesday, Trump’s transition team described Perry as the “chief executive of one of the country’s largest states and one of the largest economies in the world.”

The Trump team further praises Perry as one of the most successful governors in modern history, “having led Texas through a sustained period of economic growth and prosperity by developing the state’s energy resources and infrastructure, and making low-cost energy available to companies and families.”

“As the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry created created a business climate that produced millions of new jobs and lower energy prices in his state, and he will bring that same approach to our entire country as Secretary of Energy,” said President-elect Trump. “My administration is going to make sure we take advantage of our huge natural resource deposits to make America energy independent and create vast new wealth for our nation, and Rick Perry is going to do an amazing job as the leader of that process.”

Energy Secretary nominee Perry said: “As the former governor of the nation’s largest energy producing state, I know American energy is critical to our economy and our security. I look forward to engaging in a conversation about the development, stewardship and regulation of our energy resources, safeguarding our nuclear arsenal, and promoting an American energy policy that creates jobs and puts America first.”

In the statement announcing Perry as the Energy Secretary pick, the transition team said Perry will “carry out President-elect Trump’s vision to make America energy independent, create millions of new jobs, and protect clean air and water.”

To remind, as a former Texas governor, Perry was a member of the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition, formed in 2011, consisting of nine coastal state governors who support policies that encourage an expansion of American energy, particularly U.S. offshore energy resources.

‘Trifecta for the oil and gas industry’

Abigail Dillen, Vice President of Litigation for Climate & Energy at environmental group Earthjustice has objected the nomination of Perry for the Energy Secretary position.

She said: “Today the Trump team gave the oil and gas industry a trifecta at the expense of the vast majority of Americans who understand the urgency of acting on climate change and transitioning away from fossil fuels to clean energy. These nominations would give the wealthiest oil executives in the country unprecedented power over our daily lives—from the air we breathe to the water we drink.

She was referring to Trump nominating Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson for the Secretary of State, Oklahoma Attorney General Scot Pruitt as the head of Environmental Protection Agency.

“President-elect Trump has nominated an oil company CEO who has bankrolled climate-denying science to be Secretary of State. He has nominated a climate-denying state Attorney General who has used his power to do the bidding of the oil and gas industry to head the Environmental Protection Agency. The nomination of Texas Gov. Rick Perry—yet another out-of-touch climate denier—to head the Department of Energy (DOE), an agency he vowed to eliminate, completes the dangerous trio of climate denial and obstruction. This may be the most stunning expression of how money in politics work. The richest corporations win and everybody else loses. “

“We look to the Department of Energy for crucial scientific and technological innovations in the energy field. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is an area where the DOE is moving us forward with renewable energy and energy efficiency breakthroughs. The leader of the DOE should value and take pride in these pioneering advancements. Gov. Perry seems not to care less. During his presidential run in 2012, he told voters he would eliminate the very cabinet position he has now been asked to fill.

“Like his fellow cabinet appointees Rex Tillerson and Scott Pruitt, Gov. Perry has been a champion of fossil fuel interests. He has refused to implement the Clean Power Plan, he sits on the board of the company seeking to build the Dakota Access pipeline, and during his 2016 presidential run said he would approve the Keystone pipeline on “day one.””

Offshore Energy Today Staff