Story highlights Rick Perry famously called for shutting down the Energy Department in 2012

The former Texas governor forgot which agency he meant during a primary debate

(CNN) President-elect Donald Trump has selected former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to be his nominee for energy secretary, the transition team announced Wednesday, which would make him head of an agency he once sought to eliminate.

Perry, twice an aspirant for the White House and for decades a swaggering figure in the Texas Republican Party, returns to the national limelight after his career in politics withered amid scandal and embarrassment.

If confirmed by the Senate, Perry will inherit a department that has focused on promoting clean energy and reducing dependence on fossil fuels, but has also seen domestic production of oil explode. And his selection is a nod to the traditional GOP emphasis on energy sources like coal and oil.

"As the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry created created a business climate that produced millions of new jobs and lower energy prices in his state, and he will bring that same approach to our entire country as Secretary of Energy," Trump said in a statement. "My administration is going to make sure we take advantage of our huge natural resource deposits to make America energy independent and create vast new wealth for our nation, and Rick Perry is going to do an amazing job as the leader of that process."

A hallmark of Obama's Energy Department has been the grants and loans it issues for research. The loan program was expanded to include renewable energy projects as part of Obama's economic stimulus package in 2009, and more than $30 billion in loans have been issued since then.

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