Trump Energy Secretary Pick Chris Wright Calls Climate Crisis Denier Bjorn Lomborg a 'Friend'
By Geoff Dembickion Nov 19, 2024
The fracking executive selected by President-elect Donald Trump to run the U.S. Department of Energy, Chris Wright, has called the concept of carbon pollution outrageous and says that the influential climate crisis denier Bjorn Lomborg is a friend.
Wright is chief executive officer of Liberty Energy, a Colorado-based fracking company. Hes an outspoken advocate for fossil fuels who frequently claims that fears about global temperature rise are overblown, calling this a false and dishonest narrative.
Wrights thinking about climate change appears to have been shaped in part by Lomborg, who is founder and president of a climate obstruction group called the Copenhagen Consensus Center and author of the book, False Alarm, which claims that climate change is not the apocalyptic threat that weve been told it is.
In addition to running Liberty Energy, which describes itself as a leading North American oilfield services firm, Wright frequently produces online videos and other content where he shares views about fossil fuel development and climate change that are far outside the scientific and economic mainstream.
There is no climate crisis, and were not in the midst of an energy transition either, he said in a video posted on his LinkedIn page last year, seemingly ignoring that 2024 is set to be the hottest in recorded history while global investments in clean energy surpass $2 trillion. Humans and all complex life on Earth is simply impossible without carbon dioxide. Hence, the term carbon pollution is outrageous, he added.
Those views may have helped forge relationships between Wright and powerful conservative networks that seek to obstruct climate action in the U.S. and internationally. Wright in 2022 spoke at an event hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), a conservative think tank that has received at least $3.6 million since 1998 from foundations linked to the oil and gas billionaires Charles and David Koch.
I'm an atheist but Jesus Fucking Christ these people are demons working for Beelzebub!
https://www.desmog.com/2024/11/19/trump-energy-secretary-pick-chris-wright-calls-climate-crisis-denier-bjorn-lomborg-a-friend/