President Donald J. Trump formally nominated Dan Brouillette to serve as the next energy secretary on Thursday.

Brouillette, a former Ford executive, is currently deputy secretary in the U.S. Department of Energy. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he would replace Rick Perry, who is resigning as energy secretary.

“I am honored to be nominated by President Trump to serve as the U.S. secretary of energy, and grateful to Secretary Perry for asking me to join him at the Department of Energy over two years ago,” Brouillette said in a DOE press release on Thursday. “If confirmed, I will further Secretary Perry’s legacy of promoting energy independence, innovation, and security for the American people.”

Brouillette has visited DOE sites in Oak Ridge as deputy secretary, while Perry has visited as energy secretary, including to announce Frontier, a new supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in May.

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