Chris Wright

Chris Wright is the 17th US Secretary of Energy, confirmed by the Senate on 3 February 2025 with a 59-38 vote. In October 2025, Wright invoked Section 403 of the DOE Organisation Act to direct FERC to open Docket RM26-4-000, a rulemaking to standardise how electricity loads above 20 MW connect to the interstate transmission grid. FERC committed in April 2026 to act on the docket by end of June 2026 , though it moved roughly two months past Wright's preferred 30 April deadline. He has publicly framed data-centre load growth as a national energy security priority. Deputy Secretary James Danly commended FERC's announcement.

A mechanical and electrical engineer educated at MIT, Wright founded and led Liberty Energy, North America's second-largest hydraulic fracturing company, before his Cabinet appointment. He has stated publicly that there is "no climate crisis" and has worked to roll back climate mitigation policies, positioning the Department of Energy as a champion of fossil-fuel expansion. His tenure has included public friction with other Cabinet members: during the Iran conflict he split with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth over Hormuz security, telling CNBC the US would not block Iranian oil transit — a position that contributed to market volatility when Brent closed above $100.

Wright's tenure is significant across multiple topics. On data-centre infrastructure, the RM26-4-000 directive makes him the architect of the only federal mechanism capable of overriding the growing mosaic of municipal moratoriums on the grid-connection side. On energy geopolitics, his DOE role places him at the intersection of AI infrastructure policy, fossil-fuel expansion, and Hormuz transit decisions.