US Energy Secretary Attacks Offshore Wind and Dismisses Climate Change

Chris Wright, who travels to Europe next week to promote American gas, called climate change “not incredibly important.”

Chris Wright, the energy secretary, also said, “We don’t want to be in the race for the most expensive electricity in the world.”

Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Friday defended the Trump administration’s decision to block a nearly completed $6.2 billion wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island by saying offshore wind increases electricity prices and by downplaying the jobs at stake.

Energy experts accused Mr. Wright of oversimplifying the economics of offshore wind energy, noting that while it requires a significant amount of upfront capital to build a project, it was expected to create more than 55,000 jobs by the end of the decade and enough electricity to inexpensively power 22 million homes before the Trump administration took steps to throttle the nascent industry.

A former fracking executive, Mr. Wright said the focus in the United States to transition away from fossil fuels had hurt the country. It’s a message he said he intended to take on a multileg trip next week to Europe, where he will encourage countries to buy more American gas. The United States is currently the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas as well as the largest producer of oil.