Former Texas governor Rick Perry to be Trump's pick for Energy Secretary

Former Texas governor Rick Perry is reportedly set to become US President-elect Donald Trump's pick for the next Energy Secretary. Perry met with the president-elect at Trump tower earlier on Monday where it is thought that they discussed the position.

Sources close to the transition efforts told CBS news that Perry will be the pick. Perry has some interests that might be seen as conflicting including sitting on the board of a parent company to the organisation attempting to build the Dakota access pipeline.

The choice also means that the Department of Energy would be run by a man who famously forgot it. During his run to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012, Perry forgot the name of the department he is set to head up in a list of departments he said he would scrap.

"It is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce, Education, and the — What's the third one there? Let's see." Perry said during a primary debate before later remembering that the third was the Department of Energy.

Perry is also thought to be a climate change sceptic, having previously questioned the science behind global warming.