Energy secretary blasts 'sinister' zero carbon emissions goal

Energy Secretary Chris Wright denounced efforts to achieve net zero carbon emissions by midcentury as a “sinister goal” in remarks at a conservative policy conference Monday.

“Net zero 2050 is a sinister goal, it’s a terrible goal,” Wright said to applause at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship forum in London, where he spoke through a video link. “It’s both unachievable by any practical means [and] 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.”

Wright, a former fracking executive, claimed that countries that set net zero goals simply “export your industry.”

“This is not energy transition, this is lunacy,” he said, echoing remarks he made in 2023 that "there is no climate crisis, and we're not in the midst of an energy transition either.”

The Biden administration set a goal in 2021 of reaching net zero by 2050, but Wright and President Trump have worked to roll back much of their predecessors’ promotion of renewable energy to shift back to promotion of fossil fuel development since taking office. Carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions are the primary cause of climate change.

Wright’s fellow Trump Cabinet member Interior Secretary Doug Burgum had set a goal of net zero for his state by 2030 when he served as governor of North Dakota. Burgum, who led the No. 3 oil producing state in the nation, vocally backed the notion that net zero was achievable without decreasing fossil fuel production through the use of largely untested carbon capture technology.

Wright’s remarks came days after he granted the first approval of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project of the Trump administration, another policy reversal after the Biden administration froze new LNG export approvals to research their impacts on climate change and consumer energy prices.

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