‘Climate alarmism has reduced freedom, prosperity, and national security,’ Secretary Wright says in Poland
Energy Secretary Chris Wright implored European nations to reject “climate alarmism” and instead reembrace natural gas and nuclear power as parts of the continent continue to face widespread grid blackouts.
During his keynote address at a global energy conference in Poland on Monday evening, Wright said Europe’s net zero policies—which push a transition from oil and gas to green energy sources, such as wind and solar, to fight global warming—pose a threat to economic prosperity and national security. European leaders, according to Wright, should instead choose a path that ensures energy is abundant, secure, affordable, and reliable.
“The other side of the fork deprives citizens [and] consumers of choice,” Wright remarked while European leaders looked on. “It is 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.”
“But I can say that climate alarmism has clearly reduced energy freedom and, hence, prosperity and national security across western Europe. Let me say that again. Climate alarmism has reduced freedom, prosperity, and national security,” he continued. “The clarion conclusion from economic studies of climate change is that net zero 2050 is absolutely the wrong goal. Not only is it unachievable, but the blind pursuit of it will cause, is causing, far more human damage than climate change itself.”
The timing of Wright’s speech is apt: It comes as Spain and Portugal both face massive power grid blackouts, a phenomenon that energy experts have warned will become more common as nations begin to rely more heavily on weather-dependent power sources, such as wind and solar. Those sources of power are often characterized as unreliable since they cannot be dispatched at a moment’s notice.
Though authorities have yet to provide a reason for the event, solar accounted for about 55 percent of power generation and wind accounted for another 11 percent while natural gas accounted for just 3 percent, according to power data generated moments before the blackout. The reliance on green energy is by design and part of broader net zero goals—in fact, in September 2024, Spain formally hiked its solar, wind, and overall emissions targets.
As of Monday afternoon, the data showed that the two countries’ grids had made little progress and continued to produce just a fraction of their total electricity demand. The looming sunset also threatens to cause further shortfalls as solar power generation plummets.
“It’s very sad to see what’s happened to Portugal and Spain and so many people there. But, you know, you hitch your wagon to the weather, it’s just a risky endeavor,” Wright said in an interview with CNBC following his speech. “If you choose to have expensive, unreliable energy, you can’t have a thriving economy, and you reduce the life opportunities for your citizenship. It’s a choice, but it’s a bad choice.”
Wright’s remarks also mark a turning point for how the United States approaches energy and climate issues on the world stage. During the Biden administration, then-energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and other top officials regularly chastised the fossil fuel industry and called for more net zero policies, not fewer.
Former president Joe Biden set a goal for the United States to reduce economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60 percent over the next decade and 100 percent by 2050. According to Energy Department data, however, fossil fuels still account for 60 percent of total nationwide power generation, while wind and solar produce just 14 percent of the nation’s power.
“The previous U.S. administration worked hard to move the United States onto that same fork—the fork with mandated, top-down, expensive, unreliable energy that would drive deindustrialization of America,” Wright said of the Biden administration’s actions. “The American people rejected this pathway after seeing the ruinous toll that lay down that road. Instead, they reelected President Trump to bring back freedom and prosperity.”
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