Perry calls global moves to shift from fossil fuels ‘immoral’

President Trump’s Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Wednesday called the global shift away from fossil fuels “immoral,” saying that it threatened poorer nations from developing economically.

“Look those people in the eyes that are starving and tell them you can’t have electricity,” Perry said. “Because as a society we decided fossil fuels were bad. I think that is immoral.”

Perry was appearing at the CERAWeek by IHS Markit energy conference in Texas, the Houston Chronicle reported.

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The United States has entered “energy realism,” Perry said, as the Trump administration has pushed for more oil and gas production, as well as wind and renewable energy.

“America is now on the cusp of energy independence but the president wants to see this go further. He wants to share America’s energy bounty with the world,” Perry said. “We’re going to be exporting multiple fuels. And we will export the same technologies that made us a clean abundant energy producer.”

Perry has previously spoken about blessing other nations with U.S fossil fuel for a “better quality of life or better opportunities.”

Perry suggested in November that expanding the use of fossil fuels could prevent sexual assault.

“From the standpoint of sexual assault, when the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will on those types of acts,” Perry said.

Perry did not mention the term “climate change” once during his Houston appearance, the Chronicle reported. 

Perry has been an outspoken challenger to climate change and supported President Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Accord agreement.

Perry has previously denied that carbon dioxide emissions from humans were a primary component of climate change, a statement that was slammed by federal scientists and researchers.