Perry: The U.S. Will Give The World “A Better Life Through Fossil Fuels”

With much of the world desperately trying to rid itself of fossil fuels to avoid disaster from climate change, the Trump Administration at times seems to be on a different planet.  That seems the case at the Davos conference where Energy Secretary Rick Perry proclaimed that the United States is “blessed” to be able to offer the world “a better quality of life through fossil fuels.”  Not only our closest allies like Germany and England have been making huge efforts to drop fossil fuels, but China is moving aggressively to avoid this “better world” model.

Appearing with Saudi Arabia Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak on a panel, Perry stated “We are blessed to be in countries with a substantial ability to deliver the people of the globe a better quality of life through fossil fuels.”

The United States is increasing views as the “spoiler” in the global effort to curtail pollution and climate change.  Statements like Perry’s only reaffirms the image of the United States as the outlier on this global crisis.

Perry’s controversial comments comes as France announced that it will also set a deadline for phasing out coal fired plants for 2021.

Other Western countries have been adopting similar goals and many have made strides in converting to non-fossil fuel energy production, as we have been discussing.