OREANDA-NEWS.  President-elect Donald Trump today announced he will nominate former Texas governor Rick Perry to head the US Energy Department.

"My administration is going to make sure we take advantage of our huge natural resource deposits to make America energy independent and crate vast new wealth for our nation," Trump said.

And Perry "is going to do an amazing job as leader of that process."

Perry said he knows energy "is critical to our economy and our security."

The three-term governor, if confirmed by the US Senate to become the next energy secretary, would manage an agency with an annual budget of about $30bn, of which only $791mn goes to energy programs related to fossil fuel.

The Energy Department is responsible for energy research, energy efficiency standards and LNG export licenses. Nearly 80pc of the agency's budget is dedicated US nuclear weapons programs and science research.

Perry supported eliminating the Energy Department during his failed 2012 presidential bid, only to then forget the name of the agency when asked about it during a Republican primary debate.

Energy companies have long complained that the Energy Department is too slow in issuing licenses needed to export LNG. Republican lawmakers also criticized the agency for its role in offering low-cost loans to renewable energy companies and for what they perceive as a bias against fossil fuels.

But Perry would have little ability to help Trump fulfill pledges to boost US energy production by cutting regulations or opening up federal lands to drilling, responsibilities that fall chiefly to other agencies. Instead he would oversee national laboratories, manage "clean coal" programs and direct research into advanced energy projects.

Trump's transition team has been circulating questions within the Energy Department into its research on climate change and studies related to renewable energy, according to a memo leaked last week. Environmental groups have taken those questions as an indication that the Trump administration might target climate change research.

The Energy Department also manages the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the 695.1mn bl crude stockpile, and a 1mn bl heating oil reserve located in three northeast US locations. Another large responsibility for the agency is setting energy efficiency standards for commercial and residential appliances.