President-elect Donald Trump named one-time nomination rival and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to take the helm at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). When he ran for president in 2012, Perry suggested eliminating the agency, which has jurisdiction over the nation’s network of 17 national laboratories, the nuclear weapons program, and energy production/conservation.
The state of Texas grew into a leading state for wind production under his tenure, and he supports an “all of the above” energy policy. Perry promoted carbon capture and storage projects in the Lone Star State, but has called climate change a “contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight.”
At DoE Perry will manage a nearly $30 billion budget.