Secretary of the Department of Energy Chris Wright, second from left, visited Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on Feb. 28, 2025. He was joined by, from left, U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and Open AI CEO Greg Brockman. (Photo: Ben Pounds)
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright denied that climate change was a “crisis” and downplayed its threat during a Friday visit to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
At a press conference, Wright defended the Trump administration’s opinions on climate change, energy and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a group headed by Elon Musk that has made cuts to federal programs and staff.
Wright did not announce any layoffs at ORNL. He implied research related to climate there will continue. ORNL is home to research including the Climate Change Science Institute,The CCSI does modeling and gathers data on climate, as well as working on solutions.
Wright promoted research on artificial intelligence, which he called “Manhattan Project II” and nuclear energy, and he appeared alongside Tennessee U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty, 3rd Congressional District U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and Open AI CEO Greg Brockman.
“I don’t think you’ll see any reduction in the science that we do regarding climate change or any of these other really big questions,” said Wright.
Deaths from extreme weather, which is what you hear the press and politicians’ fear mongering about, it declined over 90% in my lifetime as the population’s grown.
– U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright
The Department of Energy funds ORNL research, but a partnership between Battelle, a private nonprofit applied science and technology development company, and the University of Tennessee runs all of the lab’s activities as a contractor. Wright said he “100%” believed there was no climate “crisis” and that scientific reports backed up his view.
“We haven’t seen an increase in the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, floods, droughts, storms. Wildfires are on an uptick because we stopped managing our forests,” said Wright. He said the climate is changing, but downplayed risks.
“Deaths from extreme weather, which is what you hear the press and politicians’ fear mongering about, it declined over 90% in my lifetime as the population’s grown,” he said. “So climate change is a real phenomenon. It’s just not even remotely close to the world’s biggest problem.”
Wright also said an intergovernmental climate change report showed economists say climate change is not as important as issues like education, free trade and “empowerment.”
While the frequency of hurricanes hitting the United States hasn’t increased, a recent Columbia University study showed the tropical cyclones’ intensity for the East and Gulf Coasts has.
Also, unmentioned by Wright was any impact the climate has on disease or health conditions apart from extreme weather. Experts at Vanderbilt University in Nashville have said an increase in auto-inflammatory diseases, skin conditions and even cancer may result from global climate change.
“It’s a real thing, but nothing in the science of climate change or in the economics of climate change shows it to be the world’s biggest problem,” Wright said. “When you call something a crisis, it means we don’t have time to stop and think. We’ve just got to take action. That’s exactly the opposite of what climate science is.”
During Friday’s meeting, he also defended Musk, DOGE and Trump while not announcing cuts for the civilian research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory or the weapons maintenance at Y-12 National Security Complex. Private contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security manages Y-12, not UT-Batelle. CNS in turn contracts with the National Nuclear Security Administration, which in turn is a semi-autonomous part of the DOE managed by a different contractor.
Workers at Oak Ridge’s Y-12 National Security complex received termination letters that were later rescinded.
“We have an effort, of course, to try to make the federal government more efficient. That means deliver more services more efficiently,” Wright said. “Of course you’ll see some reduction in total headcount. I don’t think here at a cutting-edge national lab that that’s an issue at all. I wouldn’t worry about that.”
He called Trump “passionate” about nuclear defense even amid his call to spend less on it.
Wright blamed the Biden administration for higher energy prices and criticized it for increasing “headcount” by 20%. However, like his predecessor Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, he promoted nuclear power as part of an overall strategy.
Wright, like Granholm, visited the future site of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Small Modular Reactor, a new type of nuclear power plant.
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