In the Telegraph, Cameron Henderson profiles Chris Wright, Donald Trump’s nominee for energy secretary, who slammed Net Zero as a “sinister goal” and was briefly censored by LinkedIn for posting a video attacking climate policy. Here’s an excerpt:
Mr. Wright, the founder and Chief Executive of Denver-based Liberty Energy, is expected to spearhead Mr. Trump’s “drill baby drill” plans to increase oil and gas production and seek new ways to boost energy.
A climate sceptic who has filed lawsuits opposing climate disclosure rules, Mr. Wright has called climate activists alarmist and has likened efforts by Democrats to combat global warming to Soviet-style communism. …
Last year, he was briefly censored by LinkedIn for posting a video in which he said: “There is no climate crisis and we’re not in the midst of an energy transition either.”
During the 12-minute video, he said that the terms climate crisis, energy transition, carbon pollution, clean energy and dirty energy are all “destructive deceptions” that cause children anxiety.
Mr. Wright went on to say that “we have seen no increase in the frequency of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts or floods” as a result of climate change – a claim that is widely disputed.
The social media platform took the video down, claiming it violated its policy on spam and scams, before restoring it the next day, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Wright, who does not have any political experience, has written extensively on the need for more fossil fuel production to lift people out of poverty. …
In a keynote address to oil and gas industry figures earlier this year, Mr. Wright has said “there’s no such thing as renewable energy”, adding that the target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 is “sinister”.
“Net Zero 2050: zero chance of this happening, but it’s actually a sinister goal because we spend an insane amount of money pretending we’re going to actually achieve this,” he said.
Worth reading in full.
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Oh to have a few more politicians like him over here.
Reform gets it, unfortunately the Uniparty doesn’t….until the power cuts start to hit, which they will.
When the power is cut, it’s possible (likely) that the spin will be to put blame on those opposed to the NetZero targets. “Had you not been in the way, we would have been able to build a reliable and safe energy system”, or something like that.
Like they do with Brexit and the NHS bus that was supposed to have brainwashed all these undecided voters, and god forbid told a lie. Who’d have thought that politicians use spin during elections. Yes the argument was spurious considering the NHS is a black hole and is now consuming more money than ever.
Exactly.
Like the communists – they never admit that the idea itself is flawed, no, it’s just that it hasn’t been put into practice properly.
They will switch off oil and gas, and when the power cuts happen, they will just say “you see, if only we had built more solar farms / wind turbines we would not have this problem! We need to build more renewables.”
Except that people will look around Europe and the World and see that we were the only country to suffer cuts.
People will also remember there weren’t cuts before the windmills.
Wow, these Trump appointments are going to have their work cut out and a battle on their hands, I wish them the best of luck.
At least the alarmists may have to start presenting evidence to back up their claims of Armageddon.
And the Climate Worriers will need to learn some Physics if they are to understand why are in the dark (literally, literally!
) and cold.
This is exactly what is needed.
Not Reform-style ‘Of course cleaning up the environment / decarbonisation / Net Zero as the ultimate objective / we just need to advance towards it in a slightly more cautious way;’
As opposed to ‘Pseudo-scientific, economy and living-standard destroying nonsense – ditch the whole agenda in its entirety immediately.’
PS, I have just looked more closely at relevant Reform policies re
Reform_UK_Our_Contract_with_You.pdf
and I have to admit I was unfair about their genuinely radical anti Net Zero approach.
There is one remaining huge question mark over a complete rejection of the whole Green approach to energy / the economy as a whole:
“Cleaner Energy from New Technology Fast-track clean nuclear energy with new Small Modular Reactors, built in Britain. Increase and incentivise ethical UK lithium mining for electric batteries, combined cycle gas turbines, clean synthetic fuel, tidal power and explore clean coal mining.”
But regardless I fully acknowledge that the Reform manifesto represents a similarly sea-change progressive transformation in these crucial areas as the nascent Trump administration in the US.
With the vacuous Farage in charge there won’t be a true anti Net Zero policy until another party proposes it so he can tag along as usual. The sooner they are set up as a proper party with members who can get rid of him.
He’s probably busy building up the party machinery to ensure it’s controlled by its members, nation wide, and getting the structure in place. And there are other urgent areas to be addressed that the public think are more urgent, and can already understand.
And a good general doesn’t win every battle he can fight, he fights the battles he can win.
Unfortunately, it’s still politicians second guessing winners, while trying to give the public an idea of what might be possible.
Each point raised leads into a technical discussion which needs A’ level Physics and Chemistry, as a minimum, to understand the questions, let alone the answers and the difficulties that need to be solved for each suggestion.
For example, are the SMRs, Small Modular Reactors, fueled by Uranium or Thorium; is the fuel solid or liquid? What’s the difference? Who cares, as long as it’s clean!
Though it’s important to make the decision before it’s built. Though perhaps, it should be decided even before it’s designed. And why not design it in Britain?
And Fast-track does remind me of the Jabs: can’t think why.
So, a bit of Fun, about a very serious topic, but I’ve had enough of Arts and Humanities graduates screwing up British Industry and, making Engineering in Britain as difficult as possible.
Fortunately, I ended up in Information Engineering, aka IT or Computing, but the country needs Engineering success. It’s what made Britain so successful, and can again, if approached correctly.
With the US leading the way back to sanity, the excuse politicians of other countries use to pacify their electorate – “we have to do it! everyone else is!” – goes away. This is the beginning of the end for the Green Nude Eel.
It revolves around —WHY? —-The excuse for doing NET ZERO is always given as “We must save the planet”. But notice the “WE” is aways the prosperous west. This all emanates from the UN. Their Sustainable Development Agenda is quite clear that the wealthy west is a problem and that we have the standard of living that we have today because of the use of the finite resource of fossil fuels. So we are to STOP. Our own Political Class (except certain right of centre party’s like Reform) are all onboard with this. —-So basically the politicians that we elect who waved Net Zero through parliament in 2019 want to LOWER OUR STANDARD OF LIVING, by pushing up the price of energy and forcing millions into energy poverty. ——Everyone in the UK need to ask themselves this “When I voted, did I vote to have my standard of living lowered”? If the answer is no, then you must vote for anyone except Labour and Conservatives who are determined to impoverish you under the false pretences of a climate crisis.
I think AI is the game changer: it uses/demands SO MUCH ELECTRICITY that the argument that we need to reduce emissions cannot be squared. Something has to give. It will be the excuse to alter course (but think oil tankers changing course so very slowly) if the AI wet dream is to continue (and incidentally I don’t think AI future will deliver all that. It is more a question of “fake it till you make it”) in my opinion as it is prone to “hallucinations” and other glitches. Someone said it ought to be called artificial competence rather than intelligence. It is just the latest new sparkly toy but it is hugely energy consuming and if they want us to use it they have to allow us access/maintain our access to electricity too.
AI can’t explain, so it’s like the BBC, and just as dependable.
Here’s a handy link for the next time somebody tells you that recent floods in Valencia are due to climate change
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_floods
It’s great to have someone of prominence rubbishing Net Zero. It’s great that he uses the word “sinister”, suggesting it’s a conspiracy theory, which it is, without actually using these words.
Unsettled by Steven Koonin certainly has all the evidence to show that he is correct.