WASHINGTON – There was the much repeated pledge during his 2012 presidential campaign to abolish the Department of Energy, and, of course, his infamous "oops" moment when he couldn't remember the name of the unfortunate agency during a debate.

Add his performance last month with rapper Vanilla Ice on the Dancing with the Stars television show, and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has made for an easy punch line since President-elect Donald Trump named him as his energy secretary nominee earlier this month.

Two years after he left the governor's office, Perry is making a transition from smooth-talking politician-in-chief to studied presidential deputy, up to the task of managing billions of dollars in federal research dollars and the nation's nuclear missile arsenal. A former Air Force pilot and cotton farmer who admits his college career at Texas A&M was sidetracked by fraternity life, Perry would be the first energy secretary in more than a decade without a PhD. President Obama's first energy secretary, Steven Chu was a Nobel laureate.

But what Perry might lack in academic credentials, say friends and political opponents alike, he makes up for it with political savvy that earned him three terms in Austin and admirers on both sides of the aisle.

"If I've said this once, I've said it a million times, people who underestimate Rick Perry do so at their own peril," said Deirdre Delisi, Perry's former chief of staff and now a political operative in Austin. "In his very long political career, Gov. Perry has shown a very keen understanding of and strong ability to manage large bureaucracies and manage them well."

As governor, Perry's energy record was difficult to pigeonhole. With a long lost of donors from the fossil fuel industry, he supported the expansion of oil and gas drilling along with coal-fired power plants, describing climate change research as a "contrived phony mess that is falling apart of its own weight."

But he also championed a $7 billion power line to bring wind power from West Texas to population centers around Dallas and Houston. Texas now produces more wind power than all but a handful of countries in the world.

Former State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, a San Antonio Democrat who sparred with Perry over legislative redistricting in the 2000s, said when it came to energy, Perry was more interested in creating jobs and growing the economy than ideology.

"He didn't see oil and wind as mutually exclusive," she said, "His take was why not harness the wind, it's a West Texas product."

As energy secretary, Perry would guide research into new sources of energy that might now look too expensive and technically difficult, but with the right push could one day may be the mainstream – technology like advanced nuclear reactors and fossil fuel-fired power plants that do not emit carbon dioxide, which scientists blame for accelerating climate change.

The department, for example, focused on advancing renewable energy under the Obama administration. Despite some high-profile failures, wind turbines and solar panels now sell so cheaply that they compete with fossil fuels in some power markets.

While scientific expertise could be helpful, said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, a physics professor at MIT, it should not be a requirement to lead the department.

"What is important in my view is how the leadership team is put together to reflect the various directions of the department and be able to work with members of Congress," Moniz said in an interview. "Gov. Perry clearly has both significant executive experience and significant experience working in the political arena."

Where Trump and Perry take the department remains to be seen. Forrest Hoglund, the Houston businessman and former EOG Resources chairman, speculated that the former governor would not bring the same enthusiasm for renewable energy as his predecessor.

"That will definitely be a difference between the two of them," said Hoglund, a long-time Perry donor. "We'll have to wait and see how it comes about."

A spokesman for the former governor said he would not comment on policy objectives ahead of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources – for which no date has yet been set. There, he will face high-profile Democrats from the party's so-called "green" wing – including former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota.

Earlier this month, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, ranking member of the Senate committee, wrote to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, expressing anxiety about the administration's "intentions for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), especially now that the President-elect has announced he intends to nominate as the next Secretary someone that has called for the Department to be abolished."

If confirmed, Perry would join other climate change skeptics in Trump's cabinet, including the nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who sued the Obama administration over climate and environmental policies. Trump has called climate change a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese government and vowed during the election to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris agreement, in which leaders of nearly 200 nations pledged to cut carbon emissions to slow global warming.

Since the election, however, Trump has expressed a less dogmatic view, saying he was reconsidering whether to leave the Paris agreement.

As governor. Perry supported the development of lower-emitting fossil fuels and was intrigued by the prospect of expanding a time-honored oil industry practice of pumping carbon dioxide into older fields to increase output, said Charles McConnell, a former assistant energy secretary in the Obama administration and now executive director of Rice University's Energy and Environment Initiative.

"He's got the same view I do: if you can capture CO2 and put it in the ground to stimulate oil production, you should do it all day long. You don't have to be over the moon about climate change," McConnell said. "He's recognized for a long time energy security and the power of energy in the economy is incredibly strong, if you make it so."

Carbon capture technology remains a divisive issue in Washington. Carbon capture, which separates carbon dioxide out of emissions from power plants and industrial facilities, could keep fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal viable as nations require dramatic cuts the greenhouse gases escaping into the atmosphere.

But for some Democrats, anything that helps the oil industry is seen as anathema. Republicans, meanwhile, balk at the huge costs -- and cost overruns -- of pilot projects promoting the technology.

Were Perry to take up the cause of carbon capture, McConnell speculated he could be instrumental in removing the political impasse. Around Austin, Perry still maintains a reputation as a capable dealmaker, adept at bringing together opposing sides on hot button issues.

"There were times when I would say horrible things about him in the newspaper and he'd called me up and say, 'Really?'" Van de Putte recounted. "He's done this for a long time and he knows there are very rarely permanent enemies. We talked once about those strange bedfellows of politics. It's about the end game."