No oops about it, the U.S. Senate today formally confirmed former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to head the U.S. Department of Energy, putting him in a charge of an agency he once promised to abolish, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Perry received 62 votes, including 10 votes from Democrats who crossed the aisle to support his nomination.Perry becomes the second Texan to join the cabinet. Texas gave President Trump more votes than any other state in the 2016 election.I
It also marks an amazing political recovery for Perry, who famously flubbed his attempt to run for President in 2012 when he forgot the names of the three cabinet departments he would eliminate if elected President, one of them being the Department of Energy.
In 2014, Perry was indicted on felony abuse of office charges for allegedly using the powers of his office to try to get the elected District Attorney of Travis County to resign. Those charges were later dropped.
Then, a plumb spot in a Trump cabinet appeared out of reach when Perry, in his second short-lived attempt to run for President back in 2015, referred to Trump as 'a cancer on conservatism.'
Although some tried to paint Perry as a pro fossil fuels extremist and a climate change denier, he has one of the least contentious Senate hearings of any of Trump's nominees. Perry apologized for his comments about wanting to abolish the Energy Department, and Democrats praised his 'all of the above' strategy for energy development, pointing out that while Perry was governor, Texas led the nation in development of wind and solar power.
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