Trump energy pick wrote ESG report hailing oil, gas, downplaying climate worry

By Timothy Gardner and Nichola Groom

WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES Nov 22 (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the energy department believes fossil fuels are the key to ending world poverty which, he says, is a greater problem than climate change's "distant" threat, according to a report he penned as CEO of oilfield services company Liberty Energy LBRT.N.

In a corporate report released in February called 'Bettering Human Lives,' Chris Wright said that the energy transition has not begun and that climate change, while a challenge, is not the greatest threat to humans.

Poverty is a bigger threat that can be alleviated with access to hydrocarbons, said Wright, who started a foundation aimed at expanding propane cook stoves in developing countries.

Mainstream science conflicts with many opinions of the incoming top U.S. energy official, who will likely be zealous to carry out Trump's agenda, maximizing already record-high domestic oil and gas production and withdrawing from international cooperation to avoid catastrophic climate change.

"The vibes will be better for the oil and gas industry," Morgan Bazilian, director of the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines, said in an interview, adding the industry felt attacked by President Joe Biden's climate policies.

Bazilian called Wright "a perfect example of this. He's been outspoken on how the oil and gas industry has brought security and power and development to the United States, which is true. The other thing that's true is that global emissions aren't going down."

Scientists say emissions from burning fossil fuels are a major cause of climate change which is unfolding faster than expected.

Wright pushes back on the treatment of carbon dioxide as a pollutant, saying carbon is essential for life.

Peter Reich, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan, called Wright's logic "terrifyingly absurd."

"People and their pets and crops also need water," Reich said. "That doesn’t mean that if your house is flooded up to the second floor or your soybean field is under water, that water cannot be a problem."

A spokesperson for the Trump transition team said: "As a leading innovator and entrepreneur, Chris Wright is a bold advocate for President Trump's pledge to bring down the price of energy and secure energy independence." Wright's spokesperson at Liberty did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wright wrote "the wealthy world has gone beyond over-optimism surrounding the breadth and scalability of a narrow slice of alternative energy and, unfortunately, has rushed head-long into outright obstruction of hydrocarbon infrastructure and

production."

The report says the number of polar bears is rising, without evidence. Charlotte Lindqvist, an expert at the University of Buffalo, said polar bear populations are not increasing and the species is losing its sea ice habitats.

Wright does support some petroleum alternatives, such as small modular nuclear, which is not commercial yet and geothermal, while criticizing solar and wind as insufficient.

Bazilian said that view is outdated, noting that the cost of carbon-free solar and wind has fallen dramatically and those sources can also address energy poverty.

Wright also wrote that deaths from extreme weather have declined for a century thanks to increased wealth and access to energy.

Drew Shindell, a climate scientist at Duke University, said Wright's point follows a common tactic of "stating things that are correct but irrelevant or tangential at best to the actual questions at hand."

"It would be a great rebuttal to the argument that to mitigate climate change we should phase out fossil fuels and instead sit in the dark and reverse modernity. No one is arguing that, however," Shindell said.

Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, pointed to the more than 200 people who died due to October's Hurricane Helene, which scientists say was worsened by climate change.

Liberty has published the report since 2021 as an environmental, social, and governance $(ESG.NZ)$ publication. Liberty says its mission to provide affordable energy sources is aligned with ESG investing principles.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Nichola Groom, editing by Richard Valdmanis and David Gregorio)

((timothy.gardner@thomsonreuters.com))