Burgum’s Bogus National Security Arguments Against Renewables Don’t Pass Muster
Interior Secretary vaguely invokes ‘national security’ in a desperate attempt to deny renewable energy
As Trump’s Secretary of the Interior returns to Capitol Hill today to appear before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee, remarks from his appearance before House lawmakers earlier in the week raise questions about the role of the Interior Department in invoking “national security” to disrupt clean energy projects. In his testimony, Doug Burgum claimed that Chinese-made solar panels are “an issue for national security.” Burgum also claimed that large-scale offshore wind turbine projects present a national security risk, an argument that federal judges and national security experts reject.
In response, David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program, issued the following statement:
“Congress did not establish the Interior Department as a national security agency, and we don’t need an Interior Secretary who seems to delight in cosplaying as a security and geopolitics expert. Doug Burgum should focus on America’s interior, not our exterior—nor on kissing Trump’s posterior. Burgum should spend his time learning about and supporting the rapid growth in wind and solar installations, and the increasingly affordable cost of renewables, not playing a phony national security expert.”
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