Energy Secretary Rick Perry James (Rick) Richard PerryA renaissance to reverse US strategic minerals imports: Dig, Baby, Dig Week ahead: Senate to vote on disaster relief bill Perry is safeguarding America's energy grid against next Polar Vortex MORE suggested Thursday that expanding the use of fossil fuels could help prevent sexual assault.
Speaking during an energy policy discussion about energy policy with “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd and Axios CEO and founder Jim VandeHei, Perry discussed his recent trip to Africa. He said a young girl told him that energy is important to her because she often reads by the light of a fire with toxic fumes.
"But also from the standpoint of sexual assault,” Perry said. “When the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will on those types of acts.”
Full Perry quote on fossil fuels/sexual assault pic.twitter.com/KH6pyApIYU — Timothy Cama (@Timothy_Cama) November 2, 2017
Perry said that using fossil fuel to push power into remote villages in Africa is necessary and will have a “positive role” in peoples’ lives.
President Trump has called for expanding domestic production of fossil fuels for export.
The Department of Energy says Perry’s statement was meant to highlight the way electricity will improve the lives of people in Africa.
“The secretary was making the important point that while many Americans take electricity for granted there are people in other countries who are impacted by their lack of electricity,” Shaylyn Hynes, an agency spokeswoman said.
In Africa for an energy conference last week, “one person told him about how light can be a deterrent to sexual assault and security in remote areas,” Hynes said. “Another leader told him about how women in their country have to go to the store every day for a new carton of milk because they don't have a working refrigerator. Those powerful stories stuck with him and that is what he was sharing with the crowd in Washington today.”
foreverstudent on November 2nd, 2017 at 14:49 UTC »
If I can parse his full quote correctly, I think he is saying that access to reliable energy isn't just a quality of life issue but can save lives and increase safety. That's fair enough.
Where it goes off the rails for me (other than 'the righteousness') is the assumption that fossil fuels are the only source that will work in Africa. I'm no policy expert, but it seems to me that fossil fuels have two advantages right now, energy density and infrastructure inertia. It is hard to leave fossil fuels, in part, because our systems are designed for fossil fuels.
Building infrastructure from the ground up is an opportunity to avoid that inertia and conserve fossil fuels for places that are already more dependent. Just like how lots of regions of the world skipped landlines and went straight to cell phones. If a better technology exists, why not use it instead?
fkdsla on November 2nd, 2017 at 14:03 UTC »
Burn fossil fuels -> Increase atmospheric CO2 concentration -> Asphyxiate humanity -> Prevent sexual assault
PM_ME_LENNYFACES on November 2nd, 2017 at 13:58 UTC »
"I just got back from Africa, I'm going to finish up with this, because I think I heard a lady say there are people dying. Let me tell you where people are dying, is in Africa, because of lack of energy they have there. And it's going to take fossil fuels to push power out into those villages in Africa, where a young girl told me to my face, one of the reasons that electricity is so important to me is not only because I'm not going to have to try to read by the light of a fire and have those fumes literally killing people.' 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. So from the standpoint of how you really affect people's lives, fossil fuels is going to play"