“We will drill, baby, drill.”

President-elect Donald Trump surely made good on that promise when he nominated Chris Wright — a Big Oil CEO who denies the climate change emergency — to run the Department of Energy, the very agency tasked with spearheading our nation’s transition away from polluting fuels.

With this choice, Trump has chosen profits over people.

Wright has long positioned himself as a combative champion of oil and gas. His $2.8 billion company, Liberty Energy, specializes in fracking, pumping water, sand and chemicals underground to extract hydrocarbons. The company has been highly profitable, fracking about 20% of the onshore wells nationally.

How can Wright, whose wealth is tied so tightly to fossil fuels, be trusted to support renewable energy when doing so would eat directly into his pockets?

He can’t. How can he, when he doesn’t even recognize the threat of climate change? Wright denies the climate crisis and completely dismisses the U.S. clean energy transition. But when the United Nations warns that the United States must eliminate carbon emissions by 2040 to avoid pushing the planet past the point of catastrophic warming, Wright’s stance is dangerously out of touch with reality.

Even worse, he claims that climate change actually benefits humanity. In his twisted logic, a warming Earth is doing us favors — increasing plant growth, boosting agricultural productivity and reducing deaths from cold weather — cherry-picking scientific studies to argue that the majority of climate scientists have it all wrong. But there’s a telling detail he conveniently leaves out: the very scientists whose work he cites have called him out for misrepresenting their research while ignoring the mountain of evidence showing climate change’s devastating impacts. This isn’t just cherry-picking data — it’s manipulating science to fit his fossil fuel agenda.

If confirmed as Secretary of Energy, a man who called the terms carbon pollution, clean energy and dirty energy “both deceptive and destructive” will be in charge of overseeing billions of dollars for renewable energy, carbon capture and other technologies to curb climate change. It’s like giving the wolf the keys to the sheep pen and asking it to look after the flock. This is the guy who’s spent years contributing to the climate crisis. Now, he’s supposed to lead the charge in the transition away from fossil fuels? It’s a joke, and the punchline is on us.

To make matters worse, Wright will likely follow through on Trump’s promise to slash funding for the Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark climate law driving the clean energy transition. This isn’t just any other policy: the IRA is essential to our future, with projections showing it could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030. But even this stark statistic understates the stakes. That 40% reduction marks the difference between a livable future and one marked by catastrophic climate breakdown.

Gutting this program isn’t just a bad idea — it’s a recipe for disaster.

Of course, Wright hasn’t spelled out his exact plans, but we don’t need a crystal ball to see his true agenda. When a man complains that fighting climate change makes it “hard to produce oil and gas,” he’s telling us exactly where his loyalties lie. And they’re not with our planet — they’re with the billions in oil profits filling his company’s coffers.

While I understand that there’s no simple fix for something as massive as climate change, there has to be at least an effort. But Wright? He’s called net-zero emissions pledges “silly” and “hopelessly destructive,” arguing that it would be too hard and too costly. Meanwhile, damages from climate change are projected to cost the global economy $38 trillion a year by 2049. The cost of inaction is far greater than that of change.

But in Wright’s worldview, energy poverty is far more pressing than climate change, and the answer is more energy from “reliable” sources — namely, natural gas and oil. And surprise, surprise, those happen to be the very sources his company supplies.

Moreover, Wright claims that the supposed downsides of climate change are “clearly overwhelmed by the benefits of increasing energy consumption.” He even denies any link between rising greenhouse gas emissions and extreme weather events like hurricanes, floods or wildfires.

Well, try telling that to Bangladesh, where rising sea levels threaten to swallow entire cities, or to Australia, where catastrophic bushfires have scorched huge areas of land. Even here in Houston, the evidence is undeniable. During Hurricane Harvey, climate change increased rainfall by 38%, doubling the number of homes flooded. More recently, it helped fuel Hurricane Beryl’s unprecedented intensification into a Category 5 storm. For the people living through these disasters, the “benefits” Wright touts are nowhere to be found.

Climate change isn’t some distant threat. It’s here, and we’re already living with its consequences.

While Wright has downplayed the need to transition to renewable energy, he’s taken promising stances on both nuclear and geothermal power. And he’s right on both counts: these clean energy sources should absolutely be part of our climate solution. But this apparent wisdom masks a troubling reality: Wright serves on the board of Oklo, a nuclear reactor company, and holds investments in Fervo Energy, a geothermal company — both receiving millions in Department of Energy funding. With these financial ties, he’d be positioned to direct federal dollars to companies he has a personal stake in — a conflict of interest that should concern both supporters and critics alike.

What’s even more concerning is that Wright has zero real government experience — or any experience outside of energy. Unfortunately, the Secretary of Energy role isn’t just about energy policy: it’s about sponsoring scientific research (funny, considering he’s made a habit of challenging science), managing our nuclear arsenal and cleaning up toxic waste sites — responsibilities that his resume does not provide.

This simply isn’t the type of work you learn on the job.

However, there is still hope. The Senate still must approve Wright before he can assume his role. This is where we come in. Senators must hear from their constituents — from us. We must make it clear: Wright is not fit for this role.

Wright is a businessman, and his priorities are evident: profits over lives, oil over innovation and politics over science. The stakes are too high to let Chris Wright anywhere near the Department of Energy, especially not at the top. Confirming him wouldn’t just stall the fight against climate change — it would slam us into reverse, full speed, with the planet paying the price.

We’re not shareholders looking for dividends. We’re real people fighting for survival on a warming Earth. The stakes are real, and they’re personal. Wright’s nomination isn’t just shortsighted — it’s a reckless gamble with our future.