By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate energy committee on Thursday approved President Donald Trump’s picks to lead the U.S. Departments of Energy and Interior, officials who, if approved by the full Senate, will seek to maximize fossil fuel output and dismantle parts of former President Joe Biden’s climate policy.

The panel voted 18-2 to approve former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum to lead the U.S. Department of Interior and a new national council on energy, expected to boost production of oil and gas.

The committee also voted 15-5 to approve Chris Wright, the Energy Department pick and the CEO of oilfield services company Liberty Energy.

The full Senate, which is controlled by Trump’s Republican party, will next consider the nominations. Wright will step down from Liberty if approved by the Senate.

Burgum has said he will vigorously pursue maximizing energy production from U.S. public lands and waters, calling it key to national security. Burgum’s comments to lawmakers during his nomination hearing signaled a sharp turn in policy, after Biden attempted for years to limit oil and gas drilling to fight climate change by reducing federal lease auctions and banning future development in some offshore waters.

Wright believes fossil fuels are the key to ending world poverty, which is a greater problem than climate change’s “distant” threat, according to a report he wrote while at Liberty.

In his nomination hearing, Wright said the wildfires that devastated Los Angeles are “heartbreaking” but stood by his previous comments on social media about wildfires. In 2023 Wright said on social media that “hype over wildfires is just hype to justify” policies to curb climate change.

Senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who voted against Wright, said his comments regarding wildfires and his refusal to retract his statement have “made it impossible for me to support his nomination.”

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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