EXCLUSIVE — Energy Secretary Chris Wright admitted there were some mistakes made in a report released by the Energy Department last month that downplays the risks of climate change, even as he defended the report in response to harsh criticism from many environmentalists and climate scientists.
During an interview with the Washington Examiner on Friday, Wright said he encouraged debate around the agency’s research, noting that the administration wants to foster discussions both disagreeing with and agreeing with the report’s findings.
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Among the most serious criticisms of the report, titled “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate,” is the accusation from a number of climate researchers whose work it cited that it misrepresented their research or included erroneous data.
Wright told the Washington Examiner that the agency has found some “small mistakes” in the report since it was released a month ago in tandem with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to roll back the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which laid the foundation for decades of climate change-related laws and regulations.
“Look, the authors worked quickly to assemble a great amount of stuff,” Wright said. “Mistakes can be made, of course. And I have seen a few small mistakes identified. Of course, those will be fixed.”
Wright did not specify what mistakes he saw.
Five independent scientists, selected by Wright in early spring, wrote the report. Several of these authors, including John Christy, Judith Curry, and Ross McKitrick, are widely considered to be skeptics of mainstream climate science or contrarians.
Overall, the report’s key findings downplay the effects of climate change on extreme weather and the efficacy of mitigation-related policies and actions.
The authors write that claims of increased frequency or intensity of hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and droughts are not supported by U.S. historical data, that carbon dioxide-induced warming is less damaging economically than commonly thought, that aggressive mitigation policies cause more harm than good, and that U.S. policy actions will have undetectably small direct imparts on the global climate.
The report is currently subject to a public comment period, which is scheduled to end on Sept. 2.
When asked if public input could sway the administration from fully revoking the Endangerment Finding, Wright told the Washington Examiner, “That’s the idea of public comment period.”
“We’ll hear input and ideas from everyone,” he continued. “But I think that the data in the story on climate change … is pretty clear and pretty compelling. It’s a real physical phenomenon. It’s just not even remotely close to the world’s greatest problem, and it’s nowhere near the United States’s greatest problem.”
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As both the decision to revoke the 2009 Endangerment Finding and the DOE report supporting the move have come under fire, Wright is welcoming the criticism and debate.
“That’s what we want,” the secretary said. “That’s what science is. This Orwellian cancel culture way climate change was treated before — it’s just wrong. We can’t scare kids and tell them, ‘You can’t say anything, but the world is about to end.’ Let’s have a discussion about the data and the debate where it may lead, and what it might say about trade-offs with energy.”