Sawt Falasteen - 'Climate cult' hurts Europe's economy, US energy secretary tells AFP

Wright is attending ministerial meetings at the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) this week, months after US-European ties were rattled over President Donald Trump's bid to acquire Greenland.

In an interview with AFP, Wright said Europe can count on the United States as a reliable partner despite the tensions over the Danish autonomous territory.

He also defended Trump's decision last week to repeal the legal basis for US climate rules, downplaying concerns about rising carbon emissions.

"That's been sort of a side effect of the modern world," said Wright, a former fracking magnate.

"The real impact is the world's a little bit warmer, a little bit greener, a little bit wetter ... And all the policies, noise in Europe, in the US, and all that, don't even move the needle on that."

The EU's climate monitor, however, says the last three years have been the hottest globally on record, driven by rising greenhouse gas emissions that are causing global warming.

- 'Tough love' -

Asked what message he had for Europe, Wright said: "We just need to be serious and sober about energy. Energy makes people's lives better."

He said the "climate cult" has driven up energy prices in Europe while the continent produces less of it.

"It has reduced economic opportunities for Europeans," he said. "We want a strong, powerful, industrial, wealthy, prosperous Europe."

EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen said last month that there were increasing worries over Europe becoming too dependent on the United States for liquefied natural gas (LNG) following the Greenland spat.

Europe vowed to buy huge amounts of fossil fuels from the United States as part of a trade deal to end a tariffs row last year.

"Geopolitical turmoil in the wake of the crisis in Greenland has been a wake-up call," Jorgensen told reporters.

Speaking to AFP after a conference at the French Institute of International Relations think tank, Wright said Europe should not worry as the United States remained a "stout ally".

Trump has a "very aggressive" style but "there was never a possibility the US was going to invade Greenland", he said.

"In fact, all of the United States' tough love is to try to get Europe to have a stronger military, stronger energy system, stronger economy, to be better, stronger allies with us."

He said the United States would not use LNG as political leverage.

"We will be a rock solid, reliable supplier of LNG to Europe," Wright said.

- 'Crazy policy' -

Wright, who is attending IEA meetings in the French capital on Wednesday and Thursday, has been critical of the organisation's focus on renewable energy and threatened to withdraw the United States if it did not reform.

The 31-member IEA was founded in 1974 to help coordinate collective responses to major disruptions of supplies in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis.

Wright told AFP that IEA has "made some first steps" to reform but still has "a long way to go".

"A lot of the IEA work is focused on climate change and the Paris net zero thing," he said.

Scientists say that the world must reach net zero emissions by 2050 if it is to reach the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5C above preindustrial levels.

"That's a crazy policy," Wright said. "Climate advocacy groups can do what they want, but you can't have climate advocacy within an honest group that's about energy security."

- Trump's 'revolutionary' Venezuela idea -

Wright's trip to Paris comes a week after he became the highest-ranking US official to visit Venezuela since US special forces captured and overthrew socialist leader Nicolas Maduro on January 3.

Trump, he said, had "a revolutionary geopolitical idea. And so far it's working swimmingly".

The goal, he said, is to "dramatically grow" Venezuelan oil production, improve the lives of Venezuelans, and reduce the "criminal and migration and kidnapping" threats on the United States.

Since Maduro's capture, around $1 billion in oil revenue has flowed through US-controlled accounts, Wright said, adding: "All the money is going back to Caracas."

W.Mansour--SF-PST