Trump requests Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright to Department of Energy

President-elect Donald Trump announced that Chris Wright, CEO and founder of Liberty Energy, will lead the Department of Energy in his new administration.

“I am pleased to announce that Chris Wright will join my administration as both the United States Secretary of Energy and a member of the newly formed Council of National Energy,” Trump said in a statement released Saturday.

The president-elect wrote that Wright “has been a leading energy technologist and entrepreneur.”

“He has worked in nuclear, solar, geothermal, and oil and gas,” Trump’s statement read. “Most importantly, Chris was one of the pioneers who helped launch the American shale revolution that fueled American energy independence and transformed global energy markets and geopolitics.”

According to Liberty Energy’s website, Wright graduated from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering. He also completed graduate work in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and MIT.

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Trump has chosen Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy. (Getty Images/Reuters)

“(Wright) is a self-described tech geek turned entrepreneur and a dedicated humanitarian on a mission to improve human life by expanding access to abundant, affordable and reliable energy,” the company’s website states.

The central announcement of the administration’s position comes after Trump made independent energy and boosting oil and gas production a cornerstone of his campaign. While on the campaign trail, Trump promised to expand fracking and lift a freeze on liquefied natural gas exports, marking a stark contrast to his predecessor.

“They destroyed your steel mills, decimated your coal jobs, raided your oil and gas jobs and sold your manufacturing jobs to China and other foreign nations around the world,” Trump said of the Biden administration during a campaign event in Pennsylvania last month.

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The president-elect has also pledged to use his second term in the White House to leave the Paris climate accord, lift strict emissions standards for vehicles and power plants, and boost the production of US oil and gas, including through fracking.

Trump’s nominees and administration picks during his second administration are being publicly announced at a much faster pace than during his first administration in 2016, which the transition team attributed to Trump’s commitment to putting “America first.”

US President-elect Donald Trump attends the America First Policy Institute Gala held at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail — and his cabinet picks reflect his priority of putting America first. President Trump will continue to appoint high qualified men and women who have the talent, experience and skills necessary to make America great again, Trump-Vance spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital when asked about Trump’s rapid rollout of cabinet election.

During his first administration, Trump selected former Texas Governor Rick Perry for the position, before Dan Brouillette took over in 2019. Trump did not announce his choice of Perry until December 14, 2016, putting him ahead of his first-term nomination process.

Chris Wright, center, will lead the Energy Department in Trump’s new administration. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

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On the energy front, Trump also reportedly plans to install an “energy czar” to scale back energy and climate regulations implemented under the Biden administration, and has also already named former New York representative Lee Zeldin as his choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.

Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch and Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.