Energy Secretary Chris Wright Sees Opportunity In Ecological Collapse

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Emily Atkin is the creator of a progressive blog called HEATED on Substack. This week, Atkin reported on how Chris Wright, the newly confirmed head of the US Department of Energy, lied through his teeth during his Senate confirmation hearing. Then again, he is the CEO of Liberty Energy, one of the largest fracking companies in the world, so expecting him to be anything but a slimy worm is probably foolish. Nevertheless, his blandishments did convince seven Democratic senators to vote to confirm him as the new head of DOE. Senators Maggie Hassan, Jeanne Shaheen, John Hickenlooper, Michael Bennett, Ben Ray Luján, Martin Heinrich, and Ruben Gallego all endorsed Wright. “He believes in science,” Hickenlooper said in a statement explaining his vote.

During his Senate confirmation hearing last month, Chris Wright put on a moderate face, Atkin wrote. He assured senators that he understands fossil fuels are the primary cause of climate change. He also said he takes the problem seriously. “Climate change is a global challenge that we need to solve,” he said. Now that he is safely installed at DOE, Wright is singing a different tune. In an interview on Fox Business on Wednesday, the new Energy Secretary said there are upsides to raising the Earth’s temperature to levels not witnessed since before the last Ice Age. ”There’s pluses to global warming,” he said. “Everything in life has trade-offs.”

Chris Wright & Trade-Offs

Wright then listed a number of benefits he sees from a hotter environment. For one, a warmer planet with more carbon dioxide is better for growing plants, Wright said with a straight face. “The world has been getting greener for decades. [There’s] 14 percent more greenery around the planet today than there was 40 years ago. And we have far more people die of the cold than die of the heat.” How’s that for believing in science, Senator Hickenlooper? He lied to your face and you lapped up his lies like a starving dog. You should resign your seat in the Senate and beg your constituents for forgiveness. The DOE was so proud of its new sorta science-y chief that it posted the YouTube video of that disgraceful interview on its official website. Nothing says intellectual honesty quite like Faux News.

It was almost like listening to Richard Sackler tell the world there are pluses to opioid withdrawal as well as minuses, Atkin told her readers. She then refuted his bountiful buffet of bullshit point by point.

1. “A warmer planet with more CO2 is better for growing plants.” Setting aside the complex dynamics of plant growth, in general, higher concentrations of CO2 are only better for plants if you maintain all other environmental factors, like soil nutrients, weather stability, and water availability. And guess what climate change is screwing up? Soil nutrients, weather stability, and water availability.
2. “The world has been getting greener for decades—[there’s] 14 percent more greenery around the planet today than there was 40 years ago.” Yes, but “greener” in this definition does not mean “more biodiverse” or “more healthy” or even necessarily “better.” It literally just means the world has more of the color green, both on land and in the ocean. This can be good, but it can also be bad, depending on where the green is and why it’s there. Scientists think some greening might be because of CO2, but they’re not sure how much. They do know at least a third is because of intense tree-planting and agricultural policy in China and India.
3. “We have far more people die of the cold than die of the heat.” That’s currently true, but climate change doesn’t just cause death by heat. It causes death by wildfire, floods, tropical storms, vector-borne disease, infectious disease, water-related illness, rising sea levels, malnutrition, and conflict. Also, peer reviewed research published last month showed that without extreme mitigation and adaptation efforts, the rise in heat deaths will substantially outweigh the decrease in cold deaths over time.

Climate scientists Atkin spoke to also agreed that Wright’s statements were misleading. “This is just a regurgitation of disinformative talking points,” said Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s total anti-scientific nonsense in service of a fossil fuel industry driven administrative agenda.” For Wright, those three made-up “plus sides” were enough to dismiss the threat of climate change completely. “The bottom line is, it’s just nowhere near the world’s biggest problem today. Not even close.” Apparently the mythical “energy emergency” is far more important, as is the size of his already bloated compensation package.

Atkin ticks off a few downsides to the path to an overheating planet Wright and his thuggish colleagues are hell bent on pursuing — dying coral reefs; widespread population displacement from extreme weather and rising seas; worldwide food production dropping by as much as half; and hundreds of thousands of animal and plant species facing extinction, among others. “But hey, at least the ocean will look greener from space, and Chris Wright will be rich. Everything in life has trade-offs!” she said.

Climate Opportunities

Fernando Haddad, the finance minister of Brazil, is celebrating the ass-backwards approach to climate action adopted by the new administration. He said this week that the move to scale back US investments in renewable energy is spurring companies to look to Brazil as an alternative for those projects. Many industries are already reaching out to Brazil’s development bank for financing of solar and wind power plants, Haddad said in an interview with Rede TV station on February 20, 2025. “When he cuts subsidies for ecologic transformation in the United Stated, he opens up a huge field of investment in Brazil,” he said according to Bloomberg.

Brazil is South America’s largest economy, and the country will host the next United Nations climate conference, COP30, in November. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has made investing in sustainable projects an important part of his economic growth strategy. Haddad is leading the effort, which includes creating a regulated carbon market and issuing green bonds. Haddad also said the US has nothing to gain from overtaxing Brazilian products since trade between the two countries is already balanced. “It doesn’t make any sense.” Earlier, Lula told reporters that Brazil is ready to respond if Trump places new tariffs on its products.

The current occupant of the Offal Office has repeatedly threatened to impose tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, and has sometimes listed Brazil among nations he believes levy steep costs on US-made goods. Haddad sees it as essential for Brazil to have a good relationship with the US, but to also build strong partnerships with the European Union and China. The lunatic policies of the US are driving many former friends into the arms of those who oppose America around the world. Well played, Emperor Donald. It’s nice to have a stable genius ruining running the show in Assington,