Chris Wright (photo: DOE photographer Donica Payne/Flickr)
United States Secretary of Energy Chris Wright invited Central European countries to abandon the official European Union’s energy and climate policy and join his country on “team energy freedom.”
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has delivered a keynote speech at the inaugural session of the Three Seas Business Forum, held in Warsaw, Poland.
“This is a time for choosing,” he said. Wright, who called himself a “lifelong energy entrepreneur,” claimed that after the global financial crisis 15 years ago, “the major nations of Western Europe — not Central Europe — chose one side of a fork in the road” and that his country took the other one.
In his words, the US path represents “energy for the sake of human flourishing,” one that is” abundant, secure, affordable and reliable” and “comes from innovation and choice.” In Wright’s view, it leads to economic growth.
Wright: Climate alarmism has clearly reduced energy freedom, prosperity and national security
“The other side of the fork deprives citizens, consumers of choice. It is a top-down imposition of mandates for the energy system. This top-down imposition of enforced ‘climate policies’ is justified as necessary to save the world from climate change,” the energy secretary stated in the written remarks, published by the Department of Energy.
Wright stressed in the speech that “climate alarmism” has “reduced energy freedom” alongside prosperity and national security across Western Europe.
Criticizing what he called “top-down diktats,” the US official argued they have produced an expensive and unreliable energy system that drives industry and economic activity out of national borders and made energy more expensive for citizens.
The previous US administration worked hard to move the US onto that same fork, he added. The American people re-elected President Donald Trump to bring back freedom and prosperity, according to Wright.
Wright: We warmly welcome you to join us on team energy freedom
Of note, Trump has substantially reversed the previous administration’s energy and climate policy. Launching a slogan “Drill, baby, drill” at the beginning of his current mandate, he withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement and suspended offshore wind power leases, among other measures.
Now Wright conveyed a message: “Central Europe faces a time for choosing. You all have a long history of choosing freedom and sovereignty for your citizens. We warmly welcome you to join us on team energy freedom and prosperity for citizens. President Trump’s agenda of prosperity at home and peace abroad is a team sport!”
He said decarbonization would “likely take generations.” The energy secretary claimed natural gas and nuclear energy are the two biggest climate solutions for the coming decades, “as they were in the last two decades… for the simple reason that they work.”
They supply affordable, reliable, secure energy, Wright underscored.
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