Former Governor Rick Perry is a great pick for Secretary of Energy for several different reasons. He was the popular chief executive of Texas, the largest energy producing state in the U.S., for 14 years. DOE is a bloated department with a $32 billion budget. DOE doesn’t explore for, produce, refine or transport one BTU of energy and was one of several departments that Perry wanted to abolish when he ran for president in 2008. He will cut that department down to size.
Via Austin American Statesman:
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry is apparently back in the mix to join the Trump Cabinet. BloombergPolitics reported Sunday that the two-time candidate for the Republican nomination for president had emerged as the leading candidate to lead the Energy Department.
According to BloombergPolitics, Perry met with President-elect Donald Trump at the Army-Navy football game in Baltimore Saturday, along with Ray Washburne, a Dallas investor and former national finance chairman for the Republican National Committee, who was the vice chairman of the Trump Victory fundraising committee. According to the report, Washburne is also a contender to be energy secretary.
Perry met with Trump in New York at Trump Tower on Nov. 21 to talk about a potential role in the administration, but there had been little, if any, buzz about his chances until this weekend.
Perry was harshly critical of Trump when they were rivals for the 2016 nomination, but has been an enthusiastic booster since Trump clinched the nomination last spring.
If he were to be named energy secretary, it would be doubly ironic. The Energy Department was one of three federal agencies that Perry, as a candidate for the 2012 GOP nomination, promised to eliminate. It was his failure at a Republican presidential debate to recall the Energy Department as the third agency he wanted to eliminate that led to the embarrassing “oops” moment that helped doom his campaign and forever tarnished his image.
Perry serves on the board of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, a pipeline company headed by Kelcy Warren, the finance chairman of his 2016 presidential campaign. As CEO and chairman of Energy Transfer Partners, Warren has faced criticism over the company’s Dakota Access pipeline project, which has drawn opposition from environmentalists in North Dakota.
Update:
Via USA Today:
Donald Trump confirmed Wednesday that he will nominate former Republican primary rival Rick Perry to lead the department of Energy, an agency that the former Texas governor once wanted to abolish.
“As the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry created created a business climate that produced millions of new jobs and lower energy prices in his state, and he will bring that same approach to our entire country as Secretary of Energy,” Trump said in a statement announcing the selection.
Perry, citing his experience as governor of “the nation’s largest energy producing state,” said in a statement that “I know American energy is critical to our economy and our security. I look forward to engaging in a conversation about the development, stewardship and regulation of our energy resources, safeguarding our nuclear arsenal, and promoting an American energy policy that creates jobs and puts America first.”