US Urges Eastern Europe to Split From EU Energy Transition Aims

The US wants central and eastern European countries to join its path of “energy freedom” instead of following the wider region’s transition to a net zero economy, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in Warsaw.

The Energy Secretary told the Three Seas Business Forum — which numerous leaders from the region attended Monday — that western Europe chose the wrong path of expensive “top-down imposition of enforced climate policies.” He argued that renewables investments weigh on growth and boost revenues of foreign companies, and that eastern Europe should pick a different path.

“Central Europe faces a time for choosing,” Wright told conference participants. “We warmly welcome you to join us on Team Energy Freedom and Prosperity for Citizens.”

Under President Donald Trump, the US has started to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, a landmark 2015 deal that aims to slow down global warming. The administration also announced a series of measures to expand mining and use of coal, and wants to help increase oil and gas production.

Wright said that while climate change is “a real physical phenomenon,” it’s not the world’s most “urgent problem.”

“In fact, the clarion conclusion from economic studies of climate change is that net zero 2050 is absolutely the wrong goal,” he said. “Not only is it unachievable, but the blind pursuit of it will cause, is causing far more human damage than climate change itself.”

President Trump has repeatedly called on Europe to buy more American energy products if the bloc wants to avoid tariffs.

Wright came to Poland as US firms Westinghouse Electric Co. and Bechtel Group Corp. signed the extension of their development contract for the country’s first nuclear power plant. Westinghouse also has plans to build reactors in other parts of the region.

“The two biggest climate solutions in the coming decades are the same as they were in the last two decades: natural gas and nuclear,” Wright said. “For the simple reason that they work. They supply affordable, reliable, secure energy.”