Steven Mnuchin, Trump's treasury nominee, grilled by Senate about banking record

U.S. president-elect DonaldTrump's choice for treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, defended his banking record in the aftermath of the financialcrisis on Thursday, and tried to sell senators on why he should be givenstewardship of the U.S. financial system.

Elsewhere, Rick Perry, Trump's pick to run the Energy Department, faced questions at a Washington, D.C., hearing aboutcreating jobs in theindustry and bolstering U.S. energy security. He also apologized for his earlierproposal to abolish the agency.

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Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive, hedge fundmanager and Hollywood film financier, would be the first WallStreet veteran to head the Treasury Department in eight years.

In prepared testimony for his confirmation hearing beforethe Senate Finance Committee, Mnuchin said accusations that hisOneWest Bank was a "foreclosure machine" after the housingbubble burst were untrue and politically motivated.

"Since I was first nominated to serve as treasury secretary, I have been maligned as taking advantage of others' hardships in order to earn a buck. Nothing could be further from the truth," Mnuchin wrote in his opening statement.

Democrats see an easy target in the more than 36,000foreclosures that OneWest pursued after Mnuchin struck alucrative deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp to absorbmost of the losses from such actions.

Perry addresses climate change skepticism

Trump has toutedPerry, 66, who was governor of Texas from 2000 to2015, making him the longest-serving governor of theoil-producing state, as a person who can usher in energy jobs.

Perry said during his Senate confirmation hearingthat global warming caused by humans is real, but efforts to combat it should not cost American jobs.

The comment marks a shift for the former Texas governor, who had previously called the science behind climate change "unsettled" and a "contrived, phoney mess." It also clashes with Trump's statements during his campaign for the White House that global warming is a hoax meant to weaken U.S. business.

"I believe the climate is changing. I believe some of it is naturally occurring, but some of it is also caused by manmade activity. The question is how do we address it in a thoughtful way that doesn't compromise economic growth, the affordability of energy, or American jobs," Perry said.

Trump has vowed to slash U.S. regulations curbing carbon dioxide emissions and has suggested pulling America out of a global climate change pact signed in Paris in 2015.

During the hearing, Perry said he also regrets having previously called for the department's elimination, during his failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

That proposal, which has become known as his "oops" moment, came during a Republican presidential candidate debate when he could not initially remember all of the three cabinet-level departments he wanted to eliminate the departments of Commerce, Education and Energy.

"After being briefed on so many of the vital functions of the Department of Energy, I regret recommending its elimination," he said in his opening remarks to the committee on energy and natural resources."

The department is responsible for revamping the nation'saging nuclear weapons as manyare decades old. More thanhalf of the department's $32.5 billion US budget goes tomaintaining the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal and cleaning up thecountry's nuclear waste legacy from the Cold War. Democrats alsoplan to ask Perry about how he will protect the electricity gridfrom cyber attacks, an aide to a senator said.