August 6, 2025 10:25AM
Why I Helped Organize the Department of Energy’s Climate Report
By Travis Fisher
Walking into the secretary’s office at the Department of Energy (DOE) headquarters in March of this year, I felt uneasy. I had offered to help the team with whatever they might need, and my friend and colleague Alex Fitzsimmons arranged for me to meet with Secretary Chris Wright. Candidly, after a rough tour of duty in 2016–2018, which included leading a high-profile study of the US electric grid, I was reluctant to rejoin the fray.
By the end of the meeting, however, I was on board with the idea of supporting the DOE again (although it felt a bit like the plot of a bad action movie—you know, where the Special Forces just can’t let Arnold Schwarzenegger retire). This was a new DOE featuring a new leader with a fiery passion for the truth. We bonded over the clarity and force of the writings of 19th-century French economist Frederic Bastiat, whose last words were twice repeating the phrase “the truth.” We talked about being called to public service. I learned that the secretary was friends with the late Rose and Milton Friedman (yes, the Nobel Prize–winning economist) when they all lived in San Francisco.
The trite advice to never meet the people you look up to does not apply to Chris Wright—I only admired him more as I got to know him. Our meeting started at 4:00 p.m. that day. By 4:30, I was ready to sign up for whatever mission he had in mind. In the weeks since then, I’ve noticed he has the same effect on others. It’s an unteachable gift that few of us have but anyone can recognize. I call it the Chris Wright effect—he puts your sense of self-determination on steroids. And he had a plan that included me.
Calling All Truth Seekers
https://www.cato.org/blog/why-i-helped-organize-department-energys-climate-report
