The Department of Energy in March asked the American Petroleum Institute, the influential U.S. fossil fuel lobbying group, to participate in a mock congressional hearing for a top DOE nominee, emails released Thursday by the environmental group Sierra Club show.
Audrey Barrios, an adviser to Energy Secretary Chris Wright, requested API’s participation in the mock hearing for Wells Griffith, who was confirmed by the Senate in July as undersecretary of Energy.
Barrios worked for Liberty Energy, the fracking services firm that Wright founded and ran until his confirmation, for more than 12 years before joining DOE in January, according to her LinkedIn page.
Jordan Christman, then a federal relations director at API, declined to participate, citing a conflict.
