SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Ten people were arrested for disrupting the Senate confirmation hearing of Chris Wright, the head of a fracking firm and President-elect Donald Trump's pick for energy secretary, on January 15, 2025.
(Photo: Rachael Warriner/Sunrise Movement)
'I Won't Let My Future Burn': Protesters Arrested at Fracking CEO Chris Wright's Senate Hearing
"The climate crisis is here. Oil and gas CEOs like Chris Wright have blood on their hands, and they have no place in our government," said Sunrise Movement's Aru Shiney-Ajay.
Jan 15, 2025
While senators questioned Chris Wright—the CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking company, and President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be the next secretary of energy—10 activists were arrested for disrupting Wright's confirmation hearing on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Sunrise Movement, a youth climate group.
"I am 18 years old and I want a future, but wealthy and powerful special interests are selling that future to make a profit," said Adah Crandall, one of those arrested, according to the statement. "That's why I stood up today, for myself and all the young people right now who are terrified about the world we will live in when we are Chris Wright's age."
Protestors with the Sunrise Movement stationed outside of the confirmation hearing wore shirts that said "I WON'T LET MY FUTURE BURN" and held up banners that read "Oil CEOs Profit, LA Burns"—in references to the ongoing wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area.
"The climate crisis is here. Oil and gas CEOs like Chris Wright have blood on their hands, and they have no place in our government,” said Sunrise executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay, in the statement. "Fossil fuel CEOs knew—before we were born—that burning fossil fuels would cause disasters like these fires in LA. They condemned us to die."
Wright's nomination, which appears likely given that Republicans hold a 53-47 majority Senate, has drawn the ire of climate and watchdog groups more broadly.
Mahyar Sorour, a director at the Sierra Club, recently called Wright the "personification" of a conflict of interest, noting that he has spent decades denying the connection between his company's work and the climate emergency while "getting rich from polluting, dangerous fracking for methane gas."
In 2021, Wright—who has been a longtime evangelist for fossil fuels—said on a podcast that planetary heating "is not" fueling wildfires—a claim directly at odds with scientists' warning that the changing climate, driven by fossil fuel extraction, is increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires in Western states as well as areas that have historically faced far less destructive fire seasons.
Wright's past remarks resurfaced during his hearing Wednesday. During a tense exchange, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said that Wright had once written on social media that "the hype over wildfires is just hype to justify more impoverishment from bad government policies." Padilla asked Wright if he still believes wildfires are just hype. Wright said that he watched the fires unfold with "sorrow and fear" but didn't retract his past statement when pressed by Padilla.
"I stand by my past comments," Wright said.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
climate emergencydonald trumpfossil fuelfrackinglos angelessunrise movementus department of energychris wright
While senators questioned Chris Wright—the CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking company, and President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be the next secretary of energy—10 activists were arrested for disrupting Wright's confirmation hearing on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Sunrise Movement, a youth climate group.
"I am 18 years old and I want a future, but wealthy and powerful special interests are selling that future to make a profit," said Adah Crandall, one of those arrested, according to the statement. "That's why I stood up today, for myself and all the young people right now who are terrified about the world we will live in when we are Chris Wright's age."
Protestors with the Sunrise Movement stationed outside of the confirmation hearing wore shirts that said "I WON'T LET MY FUTURE BURN" and held up banners that read "Oil CEOs Profit, LA Burns"—in references to the ongoing wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area.
"The climate crisis is here. Oil and gas CEOs like Chris Wright have blood on their hands, and they have no place in our government,” said Sunrise executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay, in the statement. "Fossil fuel CEOs knew—before we were born—that burning fossil fuels would cause disasters like these fires in LA. They condemned us to die."
Wright's nomination, which appears likely given that Republicans hold a 53-47 majority Senate, has drawn the ire of climate and watchdog groups more broadly.
Mahyar Sorour, a director at the Sierra Club, recently called Wright the "personification" of a conflict of interest, noting that he has spent decades denying the connection between his company's work and the climate emergency while "getting rich from polluting, dangerous fracking for methane gas."
In 2021, Wright—who has been a longtime evangelist for fossil fuels—said on a podcast that planetary heating "is not" fueling wildfires—a claim directly at odds with scientists' warning that the changing climate, driven by fossil fuel extraction, is increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires in Western states as well as areas that have historically faced far less destructive fire seasons.
Wright's past remarks resurfaced during his hearing Wednesday. During a tense exchange, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said that Wright had once written on social media that "the hype over wildfires is just hype to justify more impoverishment from bad government policies." Padilla asked Wright if he still believes wildfires are just hype. Wright said that he watched the fires unfold with "sorrow and fear" but didn't retract his past statement when pressed by Padilla.
"I stand by my past comments," Wright said.
While senators questioned Chris Wright—the CEO of Liberty Energy, a fracking company, and President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be the next secretary of energy—10 activists were arrested for disrupting Wright's confirmation hearing on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Sunrise Movement, a youth climate group.
"I am 18 years old and I want a future, but wealthy and powerful special interests are selling that future to make a profit," said Adah Crandall, one of those arrested, according to the statement. "That's why I stood up today, for myself and all the young people right now who are terrified about the world we will live in when we are Chris Wright's age."
Protestors with the Sunrise Movement stationed outside of the confirmation hearing wore shirts that said "I WON'T LET MY FUTURE BURN" and held up banners that read "Oil CEOs Profit, LA Burns"—in references to the ongoing wildfires ravaging the Los Angeles area.
"The climate crisis is here. Oil and gas CEOs like Chris Wright have blood on their hands, and they have no place in our government,” said Sunrise executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay, in the statement. "Fossil fuel CEOs knew—before we were born—that burning fossil fuels would cause disasters like these fires in LA. They condemned us to die."
Wright's nomination, which appears likely given that Republicans hold a 53-47 majority Senate, has drawn the ire of climate and watchdog groups more broadly.
Mahyar Sorour, a director at the Sierra Club, recently called Wright the "personification" of a conflict of interest, noting that he has spent decades denying the connection between his company's work and the climate emergency while "getting rich from polluting, dangerous fracking for methane gas."
In 2021, Wright—who has been a longtime evangelist for fossil fuels—said on a podcast that planetary heating "is not" fueling wildfires—a claim directly at odds with scientists' warning that the changing climate, driven by fossil fuel extraction, is increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires in Western states as well as areas that have historically faced far less destructive fire seasons.
Wright's past remarks resurfaced during his hearing Wednesday. During a tense exchange, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said that Wright had once written on social media that "the hype over wildfires is just hype to justify more impoverishment from bad government policies." Padilla asked Wright if he still believes wildfires are just hype. Wright said that he watched the fires unfold with "sorrow and fear" but didn't retract his past statement when pressed by Padilla.
"I stand by my past comments," Wright said.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.