Rick Perry, on Energy Secretary Shortlist, to Meet With President-Elect Today at Trump Tower

Updated at 2:35 p.m. on Dec. 12: Former Texas governor Rick Perry was scheduled to meet with the Trump transition team this afternoon in Trump Tower. According to the team's schedule, the meeting with Perry will be the president-elect's final one for the day. Trump is said to be near making a decision on who will head the Energy Department, and reports say that Perry is one of the individuals on the secretary of energy nominee shortlist.

Original Story: HOUSTON, TX — He infamously forgot the Energy Department when asked during a 2011 debate to name the three departments he would eliminate as president — the other two were Commerce and Education — but former Texas governor Rick Perry is said to be in the running to head that key department in the Trump administration.

Perry met with the president-elect on Saturday at the Army-Navy football game in Baltimore, the second time the two men had met following a Trump Tower confab.

Perry was indicted in 2014 for coercion and abuse of power after he threatened to veto funds for a Travis County office that investigates corruption unless the district attorney, who pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of alcohol, resigned. The indictment was later dismissed.

Perry serves on the board of Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the controversial pipeline project that was recently put on hold by the Obama administration. Trump's energy chief would be instrumental in future decisions regarding the pipeline.

A Perry spokesperson has not yet responded to queries.

According to media reports, other individuals being discussed as possible energy secretary nominees include Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democratic from West Virginia, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat from North Dakota, and Dallas businessman Ray Washburne.

The current energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, is a nuclear physicist who once ran an energy program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Image of Rick Perry courtesy flickr/Gage Skidmore