Chris Wright, the new US Energy Secretary, addressed a gathering in Washington of energy ministers and tech founders from Africa last Friday and encouraged them to use whatever energy sources they want, according to a report by the New York Times.
Curious about ways to help 600 million citizens who have little access to power, amid confusion over US policy changes – “including the termination of Power Africa, a major initiative that had supported them for a decade,” Wright gave an impassioned speech that downplayed concerns about climate change, it said.
“We’ve had years of Western countries shamelessly saying don’t develop coal, coal is bad,” Mr Wright was quoted as saying. “That’s just nonsense, 100% nonsense. Coal transformed our world and made it better.”
A former CEO of Liberty Energy, Wright said climate change was a “real, physical phenomenon,” the report said, but reckoned it wouldn’t make a list of his top 10 problems the world faces.
His remarks “met with roaring approval,” as they were similar to what African energy developers have argued for years, it said.
It is not known yet if Power Africa, an Obama initiative, will be revived or its focus changed, given Trump has frozen aid to South Africa.
But a former official said renewable energy is now the fastest and cheapest form of energy that can be deployed on the continent and it doesn’t require huge spending on power grids or plants.
Read the full report: The New York Times.
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