RICK PERRY
Secretary of Energy, 2017-2019
GET READY, AMERICA: RICK PERRY’S ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY RECORD IS AWFUL
December 14, 2016
Perry made fighting the EPA, an agency he’ll be expected to work with as energy secretary, a cornerstone of his governorship, once publicly announcing that he was praying for President Obama to "ask that his EPA back down." When Texas was going through a historic drought in 2011, he declared three days in April "Days of Prayer for Rain." It was in that same period of Perry’s most intense tea party fervor that he claimed the planet is "experiencing a cooling trend." He once argued that "a substantial number of [climate] scientists" have "manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects" and called Al Gore a "false prophet of a secular carbon cult."
ENERGY SECRETARY NOMINEE RICK PERRY REPORTEDLY DIDN’T REALIZE HE’D BE IN CHARGE OF AMERICA’S NUKES
In fact, the primary directive of the Department of Energy is to oversee America’s vast nuclear arsenal, with nearly two-thirds of the department’s $30 billion budget spent on maintaining the world’s most dangerous weapons.
Rick Perry, it seems, was not fully cognizant of that. Neither, apparently, was Donald Trump.
January 19, 2017
ASSOCIATE ENERGY SECRETARY RICK PERRY TO RESIGN
October 17, 2019
As head of the Department of Energy, Perry was criticized for efforts to help the struggling coal industry. His plan to provide new subsidies to coal and nuclear power plants was rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Last year, a photographer said he lost his job after leaking photos of a private 2017 meeting between Perry and coal executive and Trump donor Robert "Bob" Murray. The photos show Perry hugging Murray and the coal boss handing Perry an "action plan" to help the coal companies.
Perry has repeatedly questioned the science behind climate change. Still, his home state of Texas is the largest wind energy producer in the country. For the first half of this year, more electricity was generated in the state by wind than coal, according to member station KUT.
EXCLUSIVE: AS ENERGY SECRETARY, RICK PERRY MIXED MONEY AND POLITICS IN UKRAINE. THE DEALS COULD BE WORTH BILLIONS
But two ethics experts say Perry’s efforts were violations of federal regulations. Administration officials are not allowed to participate in matters directly relating to companies on whose board they have recently served. Other experts say Perry and his aides may have broken a federal rule that prohibits officials from advocating for companies that have not been vetted by the Commerce Department. "Even if it skirts the criminal statute, it’s still unethical," says Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyer in the White House of President George W. Bush, with whom we shared our findings.
September 10, 2020