Wright DOE nomination advances 15-5; Cortez Masto votes no, Heinrich votes yes

The Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday endorsed the nomination of Liberty Energy CEO Chris Wright to be secretary of energy by 15-5, with Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (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.

Cortez Masto did not explain her vote during Thursday’s committee business meeting. However, Wright during his confirmation hearing declined to say that he would unconditionally oppose storing radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., a project that many politicians holding statewide office in Nevada oppose.

Also voting no on Thursday was Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). After the vote, Cantwell said she opposed Wright’s confirmation 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.

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, voted in favor of Wright. Ahead of the vote, he said in remarks that while he disagrees with Wright on some things, “healthy relationships” with the “secretary of energy are critical to securing the best outcomes for my home state of New Mexico and for the country.”

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.