Trump energy pick wrote report hailing oil and gas, downplaying climate worry

WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the energy department believes fossil fuels are the key to ending world poverty which, he says, is a greater problem than climate change’s “distant” threat, according to a report he penned as CEO of oilfield services company Liberty Energy.

In a corporate report released in February called “Bettering Human Lives”, Mr Chris Wright said the energy transition has not begun and that climate change, while a challenge, is not the greatest threat to humans.

Poverty is a bigger threat that can be alleviated with access to hydrocarbons, said Mr Wright, who started a foundation aimed at expanding propane cook stoves in developing countries.

Mainstream science conflicts with many opinions of the incoming top US energy official, who will likely be zealous to carry out Trump’s agenda, maximising already record-high domestic oil and gas production and withdrawing from international cooperation to avoid catastrophic climate change.

“The vibes will be better for the oil and gas industry,” Mr Morgan Bazilian, director of the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, said in an interview, adding the industry felt attacked by President Joe Biden’s climate policies.

Mr Bazilian called Mr Wright “a perfect example of this”.

“He’s been outspoken on how the oil and gas industry has brought security and power and development to the United States, which is true. The other thing that’s true is that global emissions aren’t going down,” he added.

Scientists say emissions from burning fossil fuels are a major cause of climate change, which is unfolding faster than expected.

Mr Wright pushes back on the treatment of carbon dioxide as a pollutant, saying carbon is essential for life.

‘Terrifyingly absurd’

Dr Peter Reich, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan, called Mr Wright’s logic “terrifyingly absurd”.

“People and their pets and crops also need water,” Dr Reich said. “That doesn’t mean that if your house is flooded up to the second floor or your soybean field is under water, that water cannot be a problem.”

A spokesman for the Trump transition team said: “As a leading innovator and entrepreneur, Chris Wright is a bold advocate for President Trump’s pledge to bring down the price of energy and secure energy independence.”

Mr Wright wrote “the wealthy world has gone beyond over-optimism surrounding the breadth and scalability of a narrow slice of alternative energy and, unfortunately, has rushed head-long into outright obstruction of hydrocarbon infrastructure and production”.

The report says the number of polar bears is rising, without evidence.

Dr Charlotte Lindqvist, an expert at the University of Buffalo, said polar bear populations are not increasing, and the species

is losing its sea ice habitats

.

Mr Wright does support some petroleum alternatives, such as small modular nuclear, which is not commercial yet, and geothermal, while criticising solar and wind as insufficient.

Mr Bazilian said that view is outdated, noting that the cost of carbon-free solar and wind has fallen dramatically and those sources can also address energy poverty.

Mr Wright also wrote that deaths from extreme weather have declined for a century, thanks to increased wealth and access to energy.

Dr Drew Shindell, a climate scientist at Duke University, said Mr Wright’s point follows a common tactic of “stating things that are correct but irrelevant or tangential at best to the actual questions at hand”.

“It would be a great rebuttal to the argument that, to mitigate climate change, we should phase out fossil fuels and instead sit in the dark and reverse modernity. No one is arguing that, however,” Dr Shindell said.

Dr Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, pointed to the more than 200 people who died due to October’s Hurricane Helene, which scientists say was worsened by climate change. REUTERS