Donald Trump’s decide for vitality secretary says ‘there is no such thing as a local weather disaster’

President-elect Donald Trump’s decide to guide the Division of Vitality is fossil gas government Chris Wright — who has misleadingly claimed on LinkedIn that “there is no such thing as a local weather disaster, and we’re not within the midst of an vitality transition both.”

Hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, and different disasters exacerbated by local weather change are already hitting the US. And renewable vitality capability is on track to greater than double globally by the top of the last decade.

Nonetheless, Wright is a staunch evangelist for fossil fuels who persistently rejects mainstream local weather science. Whereas Wright additionally has ties to the nuclear vitality trade, clear vitality advocates say that with Trump’s cupboard picks, the US is shedding floor within the race to deploy renewable vitality and battle local weather change. Oil and fuel corporations, in the meantime, are patting themselves on the again.

“Choosing somebody like Chris Wright is a transparent signal that Trump desires to show the U.S. right into a pariah petrostate,” stated Jean Su, director of the Middle for Organic Range’s vitality justice program, in an emailed assertion.

Wright is the CEO of Liberty Vitality, a serious oil and fuel service supplier that launched throughout America’s fracking increase greater than a decade in the past. Round 10 p.c of whole US main vitality manufacturing comes from wells fracked by Liberty, based on the corporate.

In a video posted by the right-wing suppose tank Heritage Basis final 12 months, Wright refers to “irrationally restrictive insurance policies in opposition to the manufacturing of oil and pure fuel” that “do nothing to vary the demand for oil and pure fuel,” he claims. “Our enterprise right now is probably the most worthwhile it’s ever been. As I say, I’m a kind of folks needlessly enriched by [the] dangerous vitality coverage atmosphere we stay in right now. I don’t have a good time that. In actual fact, I adamantly oppose it.”

Trump campaigned on a Republican platform that claims merely, “We’ll DRILL, BABY, DRILL.” Wright will “be a key chief, driving innovation [and] slicing pink tape,” Trump stated on Fact Social saying the appointment, which nonetheless must be confirmed by the Senate, over the weekend. He additionally stated Wright would be a part of a brand new “Council of Nationwide Vitality” tasked with “specializing in INNOVATION over longstanding, however completely pointless, regulation.”

A biography of Wright included with Trump’s assertion says the possible Secretary of Vitality is a “self-described tech nerd turned entrepreneur” who “embraces all vitality sources if they’re ample, inexpensive, and dependable” and has labored within the fossil gas, nuclear, photo voltaic, and geothermal industries. Liberty has invested within the geothermal vitality startup Fervo Vitality, which is working with Google to supply electrical energy for information facilities in Nevada.

Wright’s appointment is also a boon for nuclear vitality. He sits on the board of Oklo, an organization creating superior nuclear reactors, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Tech corporations have signed a slew of nuclear vitality offers this 12 months to attempt to satiate rising electrical energy demand from AI information facilities. Trump’s Agenda 47 says he’ll “assist nuclear vitality manufacturing… by modernizing the Nuclear Regulatory Fee, working to maintain current energy vegetation open, and investing in modern small modular reactors.” On a associated be aware, Trump’s decide to guide deregulatory efforts on the Environmental Safety Company, Lee Zeldin, stated he desires to “make America the AI capital of the world.” 

The fossil gas trade continues to be dwelling base for Wright, nonetheless. “Chris Wright has a particular connection as a fellow MIT alum and vocal promoter of the oil and pure fuel trade,” Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Vitality Alliance that’s made up of oil and fuel corporations, stated in an emailed assertion.

Wright’s gross sales pitch for methane, marketed by the trade as pure fuel, is often that it’s an inexpensive supply of vitality. “My dedication to bettering human lives stays steadfast, with a deal with making American vitality extra inexpensive, dependable, and safe,” Wright stated in a submit on X.

However tumbling costs for renewable vitality infrastructure have made onshore wind and photo voltaic farms cheaper sources of electrical energy than fossil fuels in many of the world. “If we flip our again on the most affordable types of new vitality – like photo voltaic and wind energy – it would make vitality dearer for American shoppers,” Environmental Protection Fund government director Amanda Leland stated in a assertion. “Any nominee, together with Chris Wright, who ignores the stakes on this international clear vitality race – or fails to acknowledge the pressing problem of local weather change – ought to concern all of us.”