Interior Secretary Doug Burgum cast doubt on climate science Thursday, the same day that the Trump administration rolled back foundational U.S. climate policy through its repeal of the endangerment finding.
Burgum called the energy transition an ideological “fantasy” that was based on “incomplete data” from models that track climate indicators during remarks at event held by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank.
“I come from a belief system that science is never settled,” Burgum said, referring to the conclusions of scientists across the globe that climate change is dangerously changing the planet.
The administration has pushed to undo efforts to tackle climate change across the government, rolling back efforts during the Biden administration to boost clean power production and electric vehicle adoption while reducing emissions. Trump has previously called climate change a “hoax” and has aimed to increase U.S. reliance on fossil fuels.
Burgum on Thursday said that the idea of an energy transition, which most countries in the world have endorsed, a “semi-religion.”
“It was based on the idea that somehow the existential threat to the world was a degree of [temperature] change in the year 2100,” Burgum said. “People say, ‘Oh, it’s settled science. We can’t have a discussion about whether these forecasts may or may not be accurate, or there may or may not be cause and effect.’”
Burgum added that he expects there to be inventions “that are inconceivable to us” in the coming decades that could address warming issues.
“I don’t believe it’s a straight line between now and the year 2100,” he said. “Why would we concede that the existential threat is a theoretical computer model that, in my mind, was based on incomplete data and that was just driven ideologically?”
The overwhelming majority of scientists from a range of disciplines have concluded through decades of research that greenhouse gases are warming the climate, which has begun to cause more extreme weather events and could have catastrophic consequences for global health, food systems and ecosystems in the coming decades.
The endangerment finding, which dates from 2009 during the Obama administration, undergirded a range of policies to limit greenhouse gases that cause climate pollution. The EPA under Trump has reversed all of that, with Administrator Lee Zeldin referring to it as the “holy grail of the climate change religion.”
Burgum said Thursday that repealing the endangerment finding could “lower the price of a car by 2,300 bucks almost immediately” by reducing requirements for manufacturers.
Burgum also said Thursday that the administration’s effort to stockpile minerals could expand with more market demand.
The administration earlier this month laid out plans for Project Vault, a $12 billion proposal to use a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank along with more than $1.5 billion in private capital to stockpile the materials used in a range of complex electronics.
The administration has also announced plans to work with private industry and allies to counter China’s chokehold on the mining and production of critical minerals.
Burgum said that the minerals announcement was small compared with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve but that it could expand.
If the planned reserve “fills up” and is “up and working,” he said, “they can take another $10 billion facility, attract another $2 billion in equity, and we can keep replicating this as we build out.”
“The market will drive the size and the depth of the reserves across those 60 critical minerals based on what the market sees,” Burgum said.
