Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who clunked his way across the Dancing With the Stars stage after dropping out of the GOP presidential primary last year, now says that coal can somehow reduce sexual assault.
Perry espoused this belief during an energy conference in Washington sponsored by Axios and NBC News yesterday, saying that bringing coal-fired power to people in Africa would help save lives. Then, he said:
"But also from the standpoint of sexual assault, when the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will, on those types of acts," Perry said. "So from the standpoint of how you really affect people's lives, fossil fuels is going to play a role in that. I happen to think it's going to play a positive role."
So coal can shine the light of "righteousness" on someone who is about to commit sexual assault? Reminds me of the Sunday School song, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine...don't let Satan blow it out, this little light of mine."
Perry apparently loves coal and is a true believer in Trump's promise to bring coal mining jobs back, even though technology and the advent of much cleaner sources of power have largely made it obsolete.
Perry also said during the energy forum that he still does not believe humans are the main drivers of climate change. "I think the science is out," he said.
Well, that's interesting, Mr. Genius Secretary of Energy, because the science is in.
Your own administration -- 13 federal agencies -- just issued a major scientific study declaring, unequivocally, that actions by humans are to blame for our changing climate. It's not what Trump wanted to hear, and it flies in the face if the skeptics within his administration, but it was issued anyway because it
is part of a congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment issued every four years. It was developed by hundreds of experts within the government and academia, and was peer-reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences. Thus,t is considered the United States’ most definitive statement on climate change science.
So Mr. Brainiac Energy Secretary, if you can bring yourself to read that report -- maybe when you go buddy bye with a nice reading light, perhaps you'll realize that the "light of righteousness" is shining on those who are trying to save this planet, not those who, out of ignorance, greed, or political expedience -- or all three -- would slowly destroy it.