Who Is Rick Perry? Facts And Quotes On Trump's Energy Department Secretary Pick, Former Texas Governor

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry once faced off against Donald Trump in the primary battle for the Republican presidential nomination. But now the president-elect has chosen Perry to be his secretary of energy. The Air Force veteran and long-time politician met with the New York billionaire at Trump Tower to discuss the position Monday.

In the position, Perry will head up the Department of Energy, which is responsible for clean energy, nuclear weapons cleanup, energy security and the promotion of energy research and innovation. Here are eight facts to know about Perry’s political past and his relationship with Trump.

Perry was the Governor of Texas for 14 years. Sworn in as the 47^th governor in December 2000, Perry left office in 2014, having served 5,144 days in office. He’s the longest serving governor in the state’s history.

He ran for president twice. Perry ran in both the 2012 and 2016 primaries. He dropped out early in this year’s race and threw his support behind Sen. Ted Cruz.

He once called Trump a “cancer on conservativism,” among other insults. “Let no one be mistaken Donald Trump’s candidacy is a cancer on conservatism and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded,” Perry said during a speech in Washington, D.C in July. “It cannot be pacified or ignored for it will destroy a set of principles that has lifted more people out of poverty than any force in the history of the civilized world and that is the cause of conservatism.” He also called Trump “a barking carnival act.”

He said he would eliminate the Department of Energy. In an infamous flub during a Republican presidential primary debate in November 2011, Perry attempted to name the three departments he would scrap. “I will tell you, it is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone: commerce, Education, and – what’s the third one there? Let’s see.” Perry was unable to remember the name but later in the debate clarified that he did, indeed, mean to say the Department of Energy.

He lowered ozone and carbon levels in Texas. From 2000 to 2012 while Perry was governor, ozone levels in Texas decreased by 24 percent, 12 percent greater than the national average, according to his website. Nitrogen levels decreased by 62.5 percent and carbon levels by nine percent.

He’s invested in the Dakota Access Pipeline. Perry is a member of the corporate board for Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access LLC who is advocating for the pipeline.

Perry was indicted on two felony counts. In August 2014, Perry was indicted by a grand jury for abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant after vetoing funding for a local district attorney’s office. Both charges against him were dismissed in 2016.

He called the BP oil spill “an act of God.” “From time to time there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented,” said Perry, speaking to the Chamber of Commerce in Washington in 2010.

He’s not a fan of the Environmental Protection Agency. “Somebody has to tell the EPA that we don’t need you monkeying around and fiddling around and getting in our business with every kind of regulation you can dream up,” Perry said in a speech at a Tea Party meeting in September 2011. “You’re doing nothing more than killing jobs. It’s a cemetery for jobs at the EPA.”