Rick Perry: By exporting fossil fuels, the US is “exporting freedom”
Rick Perry (Credit: Getty/Drew Angerer)
In an interview on Fox Business’s ���Mornings with Maria�����from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Energy Secretary Rick Perry touted the idea that the Trump administration���s energy agenda is spreading ���freedom��� around the world.
���The United States is not just exporting energy, we���re exporting freedom,��� Perry said in the interview, referring to exports of fossil fuels like oil and coal. ���We���re exporting to our allies in Europe the opportunity to truly have a choice of where do you buy your energy from. That���s freedom. And that kind of freedom is priceless.���
If exporting energy means exporting “freedom” to Perry, one wonders why oil-rich authoritarian states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar aren’t bastions of freedom.
Perry��went on to say to��our allies that America’s energy exports come with a ���no-strings attached��� relationship.
���The United States isn���t about controlling a country with this energy. It���s about literally freeing up our allies around the world, letting them know that we���re going to be there for them. There���s no strings attached when you buy American [liquid natural gas]. So that���s world-changing.���
In what seemed like a barb aimed at OPEC, Perry also invited worldwide competition ��� but requested fair subsidies.
���You want to compete against the United States? Bring it. But don���t subsidize in a way that is unfair. Don���t get into the market and try to gobble all the market, and then all of the sudden, after you���ve choked everybody else out of the market, guess what, prices go up,” he said.
In June 2017, the Trump administration publicly announced its push to make America ���energy dominant,��� which is part of what Perry lauded in the ���Mornings with Maria��� interview.
���President Trump wants America to achieve energy dominance by utilizing our abundant resources for good, both here and abroad,��� Perry said in a June press briefing. ���And an energy-dominant America means self-reliant, it means a secure nation, free from the geopolitical turmoil of other nations who seek to use energy as an economic weapon.���
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, America���s fossil fuel production will reach a record-high level in 2018���and is on track to set a record in 2019.
Earlier this week, Trump announced��that the administration��plans on issuing tariffs on solar panels���a move that��could set back the renewable energy industry, and exemplifies the administration’s head-in-the-sand stance on climate change and��rah-rah��feelings about��fossil fuels. According to NASA research, burning fossil fuels is��a major contributor to the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, a primary cause of climate change.
Most alarming��about Perry���s disconcerting pro-fossil fuel rhetoric is that it once again��bucks the conventional wisdom on a��major world initiative, the Paris Climate Agreement, which was created to develop a global��solution to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions����� in other words, to stop humanity’s march towards ruining the planet through a climate apocalypse. Like his superiors, Perry is intent on marching faster towards doomsday.
