Energy Secretary Chris Wright at a UN General Assembly briefing.Sputnik via AP
This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, on Wednesday announced that his department will return to the treasury billions of dollars set aside for green projects, while dodging questions about affordability and grid reliability and claiming international climate policy has not lowered emissions.
“The more people have gotten into so-called climate action, the more expensive their energy has become,” Wright said. “That lowers people’s quality of lives and reduces their life opportunities.”
The Trump administration aims to end “cancel culture,” Wright said, wherein “you can’t say anything about climate change” without being “shouted down.” He also defended a widely criticized Energy Department report that experts say was full of climate misinformation, claiming it only contained one figure that was out of line with a recent National Academies report on climate science.
Asked about concerns that the administration’s widespread attacks on climate policy, Wright said climate action had not delivered. “We’ve had 30 years, more than 30 years, since the Kyoto protocol,” he said “We haven’t even changed the trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions.”
However, since the adoption of the Paris agreement, the projected rise in global warming has been dramatically reduced, from over four degrees celsius of temperature rise expected by the century’s end to 2.6C if climate action plans are fully implemented, according to the UN secretary general.
Wright also announced plans to return $13 billion in Biden-era funding for green projects, which his department said were “initially appropriated to advance the previous administration’s wasteful ‘Green New Scam’ agenda.” He did not clarify which green projects would be targeted.
Questioned about his administration’s attempts to halt wind farm construction, including ones that are already permitted, Wright said the administration is merely investigating widespread concerns about the projects’ impacts, including on whale populations. Scientists say there is no credible evidence that wind turbines pose a major danger to whales.
Asked if future presidential administrations should be able to launch similar attacks on already permitted fossil-fuel projects, he said they already have, citing Biden’s revocation of a permit for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.
The president has pledged to slash electricity bills by half. Yet grid operators have said the Trump administration’s efforts to halt renewable energy while keeping costly coal plants online have forced them to increase utility bills. Wright dodged a question about those rising costs, claiming that Biden’s efforts to close coal plants raised the price of electricity.
Asked if he plans to go to Cop30, the United Nations climate talks in Brazil, in November, Wright said no. “I don’t have any plans to go there,” he said.
