During an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stated that “Russia and Iran want the United States to stop producing energy so they can use it to fund wars and fund terrorism.” And that’s why Russia has funded some climate groups to oppose domestic energy production.
Host Maria Bartiromo asked, [relevant exchange begins around 4:15] “Washington is pushing to expand U.S. energy supply, green-lighting the ConocoPhillips exploratory oil drilling project in Alaska. That strategy is also, however, facing legal pushback, you’ve environmental groups suing the Interior Department over the approval of this new oil exploration on the National Petroleum Reserve. Secretary, what are you going to do about this? Give us the backdrop.”
Burgum responded by pointing to how the oil would be useful for America’s Asian allies and saying that “some of these complaints are not based in reality, they’re not based in protecting the environment, they might be trying to protect their own cause or their own whatever. But some of these — we know, over the last decade, some of the folks that were focused on climate catastrophe were actually being funded by dark money from foreign sources, including Russia. Of course, Russia and Iran want the United States to stop producing energy so they can use it to fund wars and fund terrorism.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
