US Energy Secretary Chris Wright attacks ‘sinister’ net-zero goals, singling out Britain
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US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright says the "aggressive" pursuit of net-zero "delivered tremendous costs".
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Feb 17 called a pledge to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 a “sinister goal”, and criticised the British government’s attempts to hit clean energy targets.
Former US president Joe Biden set a target in 2021 for the United States to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050
“Net Zero 2050 is a sinister goal. It’s a terrible goal,” Mr Wright said, speaking via video link at a conference held in London.
“The aggressive pursuit of it – and you’re sitting in a country that has aggressively pursued this goal – has not delivered any benefits, but it’s delivered tremendous costs.”
Mr Wright also used a question-and-answer session at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship event to say his No. 1 priority was for the government to “get out of the way” of the production of oil, gas and coal.
US President Donald Trump’s administration said on Feb 14 it had granted a liquefied natural gas export licence to the Commonwealth LNG project in Louisiana, the first approval of LNG exports after Mr Biden paused them early in 2024.
“We ended the pause and approved the Commonwealth LNG export terminal last Friday, and many more in the queue,” Mr Wright said.
“The world simply runs on hydrocarbons and for most of their uses we don’t have replacements.”
On net zero, he took particular aim at Britain, saying its pursuit of a decarbonised energy system – which the current British government wants to reach by 2030 – had damaged living standards and exported emissions elsewhere in the world.
“No one’s going to make an energy-intensive product in the United Kingdom any more. It’s just been displaced somewhere else,” he said.
“This is not energy transition. This is lunacy. This is impoverishing your own citizens in a delusion that this is somehow going to make the world a better place.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has put clean energy at the heart of his strategy for Britain, banking on the development of the country’s offshore wind resources in particular as the source of a new wave of highly skilled jobs and economic growth.
Speaking before his presidential inauguration in January, Mr Trump criticised the British government’s energy policy with a demand the country “open up” the ageing North Sea oil and gas basin and get rid of wind farms. REUTERS
