WASHINGTON — He ran for president twice, but Rick Perry may be best known for two made-for-TV moments: uttering “oops” when he forgot the Energy Department was one of the agencies he pledged to eliminate and being a contestant on “Dancing with the Stars.”
The former Texas governor is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to become energy secretary, two people with knowledge of the decision say.
At the same time, after being selected Monday to lead the State Department, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson on Tuesday was officially tapped as Mr. Trump’s pick for secretary of state.
Also, two people with knowledge of the situation said Tuesday that Mr. Trump has offered Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke the job of interior secretary, though it’s unclear whether the congressman has accepted.
Meanwhile, retired Gen. John F. Kelly confirmed media reports of his selection as secretary of the Homeland Security Department in an interview with Fox News, and Mr. Trump appointed Stephen Miller — a former Senate aide to Attorney General-designee Jeff Sessions — to be his senior adviser for policy.
A day earlier, Mr. Trump said that he is leaving his businesses before Jan. 20 so he can “focus full time” on being president.
The Department of Energy builds and maintains nuclear weapons, regulates fracking and offshore drilling and monitors the Iran nuclear deal — which Mr. Perry says should be scrapped — among its many responsibilities.
Like several other Mr. Trump choices so far, Mr. Perry is deeply skeptical of the department he would lead. If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Perry is expected to shift the department away from renewable energy and toward oil and other fossil fuels that he championed during a record 14 years as governor.
Mr. Perry, 66, left office in January 2015 and then launched his second ill-fated bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
He was a harsh critic of Mr. Trump, even calling the billionaire businessman a “cancer to conservatism,” but Mr. Perry lasted only three months in the race for the 2016 nomination before dropping out.
Mr. Perry later endorsed the Republican nominee and said he’d be willing to work in a Trump administration. He re-emerged in the public spotlight in a brief appearance on this season’s “Dancing with the Stars,” where he was the second contestant eliminated.
Democrats and environmental groups derided Mr. Perry’s expected nomination, noting that he is on the record both forgetting about the Energy Department and then remembering he wanted to eliminate it. The former governor also has repeatedly questioned scientific findings that human activity is helping drive climate change.
“It is deeply unsettling that our current secretary of energy, a renowned nuclear physicist, could be succeeded by a contestant on ‘Dancing with the Stars‘” said Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “Governor Perry is simply not qualified for this position and should be rejected.”
Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, called it “an insult to our functioning democracy. Putting Mr. Perry in charge of the Department of Energy is the perfect way to ensure the agency fails at everything it is charged to do.”
But supporters said Mr. Perry led a state that has long been a leader in energy production, first in oil and natural gas and now in wind power and other renewable energy as well.
As governor, Mr. Perry embodied the “all of the above” approach to U.S. energy production that is backed by both congressional Republicans and President Barack Obama, said Salo Zelermyer, a former Energy Department official under President George W. Bush.
“This approach is a big reason why Texas experienced such enormous job growth during Mr. Perry’s tenure. As Texas has shown, it is indeed possible to successfully balance appropriate environmental regulations with domestic energy production and use,” he said.
Trump aides would not publicly confirm that Mr. Perry had been selected for energy secretary, but praised him for overseeing growth in Texas that was linked to the energy industry.
“We’re big fans of Gov. Perry,” Trump spokesman Jason Miller said.
In his first presidential run, Mr. Perry flamed out after a series of missteps.
The best-remembered one came during a presidential debate in 2011 when he couldn’t remember, despite repeated attempts, the third of three federal agencies he had promised to eliminate if elected. He finally muttered “Oops.”
The one he forgot was, ironically, the Energy Department. The two others were Commerce and Education.
Mr. Perry has drawn criticism from some environmental activists because he is on the board of Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, the company trying to build a 1,200-mile Dakota Access pipeline that would carry crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The pipeline has sparked protests that have made national headlines.
Mr. Perry also serves on the board of another energy firm, Sunoco Logistics Partners.
He has been a vocal skeptic on climate change since before his first run for the White House. During his governorship, though, Texas became a major producer of wind powered-energy.
Mr. Perry for years used economic incentive funds controlled by his office to offer tens of billions of dollars to wind producers and other companies promoting alternative energy.
This year, Mr. Perry joined the board of a stem cell company where he underwent experimental back surgery before running for president in 2011.
Mr. Perry had previously blamed chronic back pain for his “oops” moment and other gaffes that sunk his once-promising campaign, hinting that the procedure carried out by the Houston-based biotechnology company Celltex Therapeutics didn’t help him overcome it.
But the former governor told The Associated Press this fall, after joining the company board, that his health was good and he was a big believer in adult stem cell therapy.
Mr. Perry recently demonstrated his fitness with a brief appearance on this season’s “Dancing with the Stars.” He was the second contestant eliminated.
Mr. Perry’s selection came as the Energy Department said Tuesday it won’t provide the names of staffers who worked on climate policy or other issues to Mr. Trump’s transition team, even as it pledges to cooperate with the incoming administration.
Mr. Trump’s transition team is seeking information about the agency’s operations and personnel, including a list of employees and contractors who attended international meetings on climate change over the past five years.
One person who advocates greater use of public lands for energy production such as oil and natural gas is Mr. Zinke, 55, a retired Navy SEAL who was awarded two Bronze Stars for combat missions in Iraq. He was an early supporter of Mr. Trump.
He just won re-election to a second term as Montana’s only House member. Mr. Zinke, who serves on House Natural Resources and Armed Services committees, describes himself as “a steadfast advocate for Montana veterans and military personnel and families.”
He has defended public access to federal lands while voting against efforts to designate new national parks that would diversify the National Park System.
Interior manages the nation’s public lands and minerals and is the steward of 20 percent of the nation’s lands, including national parks, national wildlife refuges and other public lands. The department also supplies and manages water in the 17 Western states and upholds federal trust responsibilities to 566 federally recognized Indian tribes and Alaska Natives.
Mr. Zinke has raised doubts about climate change as “unsettled science.” Yet he’s also said in interviews that “something’s going on” with the climate and promoted an energy strategy that includes renewable sources such as wind and solar would be prudent.
While some of Mr. Trump’s picks — such as Mr. Perry — have come from a more traditional mold, Mr. Trump in selecting Mr. Tillerson for secretary of state is pulling an executive from the rough-and-tumble world of oil production into the delicate arena of international diplomacy. If confirmed by the Senate — and his deep ties to Russia make that no sure thing — Mr. Tillerson will be at the center of discussions over the Syrian civil war, the intractable pursuit of peace in the Middle East, and potential conflicts with China, given Mr. Trump’s early questioning of longstanding U.S. policy toward Beijing.
Mr. Trump, the first billionaire businessman to win the White House, has tapped fast food executive Andy Puzder to lead the Labor Department, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross for Commerce, financier Steven Mnuchin as Treasury secretary and Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn as his top economic adviser.
But he’s taking perhaps his biggest chance on Mr. Tillerson.
Earlier this month, Mr. Trump’s aides were fighting over the State Department finalists — 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and retired Gen. David Petraeus — according to several participants in the deliberations and others close to the contenders; Mr. Trump seemed to have misgivings about all of them.
Around the same time, two well-respected veterans of the Republican foreign policy establishment, Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates, proposed Mr. Tillerson. Ms. Rice and Mr. Gates, who run a consulting firm that counts Exxon Mobil as a client, had jointly concluded that Mr. Tillerson, a supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline, might give Mr. Trump a fresh alternative.
Exxon Mobil would be the 41st biggest economy in the world if it were a country.
Mr. Tillerson has no deep history of diplomatic experience so it’s unclear how he’ll handle the job if confirmed. But he’s not a blank slate.
Under Mr. Tillerson, Exxon Mobil has struck lucrative deals with repressive governments in Africa; clashed with China and befriended Vietnam over disputed territory in the South China Sea; learned from hard experience after confronting the government of Hugo Chavez-led Venezuela head-on and winning a pyrrhic victory; and built a close rapport with Russia at a time of deepening mistrust between the Kremlin and the West.
Exxon has not always abided by America’s diplomatic desires. In 2011, the U.S was trying to resolve a fight between Iraq’s central government and a Kurdish regional government over oil money, a dispute that American diplomats saw as threatening Iraq’s future as a single country.
Negotiating in secret, Exxon struck a major oil deal directly with the Kurds. American officials were enraged.
Also, observers of Mr. Tillerson’s business career say they expect his aversion to sanctions to stay in place.
“He’s a product of the Exxon system,” said Fadel Gheit, an energy industry analyst for Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. “He believed in a free market. And if you have a contract, you have to meet your obligation.”
Over the course of Mr. Tillerson’s tenure there, Exxon succeeded where many of its rivals failed in working with Russia’s government.
Key among the company’s choices was avoiding a partnership with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oil oligarch who went on to spend a decade in jail after challenging Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Tillerson helped Exxon broker a partnership with oil giant Rosneft to “be on the same side of the table” as the government.
To Mr. Trump, the deals Mr. Tillerson has struck around the world for Exxon, and the relationships he has built doing so, are ample preparation for the challenges he would face as the nation’s top diplomat. While Mr. Tillerson’s ties with Mr. Putin are drawing scrutiny on Capitol Hill, Mr. Trump has had good things to say about Mr. Putin, too, and Mr. Tillerson’s connection doesn’t appear to have given him any pause.
“Rex knows how to manage a global enterprise, which is crucial to running a successful State Department, and his relationships with leaders all over the world are second to none,” Mr. Trump said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Mr. Miller is one of Mr. Trump’s youngest senior staffers.
“Stephen played a central and wide-ranging role in our primary and general election campaign,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. “He is deeply committed to the America First agenda, and understands the policies and actions necessary to put that agenda into effect.”
Mr. Miller began his career as a spokesman for lawmakers including Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., and John Shadegg, R-Ariz., before joining Mr. Sessions’ staff in 2009. He joined the Trump campaign after helping Mr. Trump’s team craft its immigration policy at Mr. Sessions’ request.
In other news, a day earlier, Mr. Trump said that his businesses will do “no new deals” during his time in the White House, expanding on a pledge to separate his private finances and public power but raising new worries about long-standing conflicts of interest.
In a series of late-night tweets Monday, Mr. Trump said he would leave the management of his real estate, licensing and other businesses to his sons Donald Jr. and Eric and company executives before his inauguration.
“Even though I am not mandated by law to do so, I will be leaving my busineses [sic] before January 20th so that I can focus full time on the Presidency. Two of my children, Don and Eric, plus executives, will manage them. No new deals will be done during my term(s) in office,” Mr. Trump tweeted.
The Washington Post, Tribune News Service, The New York Times and Bloomberg News contributed.
First Published: December 14, 2016, 4:41 a.m.
