Wright DOE nomination advances 15-5; Cantwell votes no

The Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday endorsed the nomination of Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright to be secretary of energy by 15-to-5, with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) being one of the five Democrats to vote against the executive.

The nominations of both Wright and former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) to be secretary of interior will now move to the full Senate. No date has been set for a floor vote. Burgum was approved by the panel with only two opposing votes.

During the Thursday markup session, following the roll call vote, Cantwell said she voted against Wright because she questioned if he was fully committed to defending the Tri-Party Agreement for cleanup of the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site near Richland, Wash. His answers on the subject during the recent confirmation hearing were “unsatisfactory,” Cantwell said.

The agreement between DOE, Washington state and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is one reason why the former plutonium production site traditionally receives more than $2 billion in nuclear remediation funds, Cantwell said. 

Every energy secretary is pushed by the Office of Management and Budget to do Hanford cleanup “on the short,” Cantwell said.