Energy Sec to step down by year’s end
WASHINGTON: Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who has aggressively promoted President Donald Trump’s fossil fuel agenda, is planning to step down by December, ending his run as one of the longest-serving cabinet members in a tumultuous administration, according to two people familiar with his plans.
Mr Perry’s tenure at the Energy Department has been marked by fierce battles over the role that coal and nuclear energy should continue to play in the United States energy landscape. The agency under his direction has tried and failed to prop up struggling coal and nuclear power plants, and has energetically trumpeted oil and gas development while overseeing plans to reduce funding for wind, solar and other forms of renewable energy.
In recent weeks his role promoting natural gas and coal exports in Ukraine has come under congressional scrutiny amid attention to Mr Trump’s political actions there. Two people familiar with his plans, who asked not to be named because they were not authorised to discuss it publicly, said Mr Perry intends to announce in the coming weeks that he will leave the administration in December. One person said Mr Perry had been winding down pet projects, like establishing an office on artificial intelligence, and that his future calendar had been cleared.
A former Texas governor, Mr Perry also avoided many of the personal scandals that had plagued his counterparts at other agencies. In part because of that, those who know Mr Perry have said, Mr Trump has repeatedly considered his energy secretary to fill other Cabinet vacancies, including secretary of veterans affairs.
Mr Trump also considered Mr Perry, 69, to become his chief of staff after John F Kelly resigned, and more recently to take over the Department of Homeland Security after Kirstjen Nielsen’s resignation, according to two people close to Perry. A spokeswoman for the department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Two people close to Perry said he would most likely go into the private sector in the energy industry.