California Democrat Senator Alex Padilla attempted to pick apart President-elect Donald Trump’s Energy Secretary nominee, Chris Wright, over climate change during a confirmation hearing on Wednesday morning.
Padilla appeared to solely blame climate change for the deadly and destructive Los Angeles wildfires before criticizing Wright, CEO of Liberty Energy, for a social media post he made in 2023 saying that “the hype over wildfires is just hype to justify” harmful climate policies, per the Washington Post.
Padilla claimed at the hearing, which was run by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources:
Despite the misinformation that’s circulating here in the capitol, in Southern California, and everywhere in between, it’s clear that these fires only reach the size and the scale that they have because of unseasonably dry vegetation and extremely high winds, both of which are a direct result of climate change.
“The climate crisis and its deadly effects is very real to my neighbors and my constituents. As we discussed in our meeting yesterday, you were a long time resident of California, so you’ve seen the conditions evolve firsthand. So I gotta tell [you], I was pretty disappointed to come across some social media posts of yours,” Padilla said to Wright. ‘You’ve written that the “hype over wildfires is just hype to justify more impoverishment from bad government policies.’ Given the devastation that we’re currently experiencing in Los Angeles, do you still believe that wildfires are just hype?”
Padilla cut off Wright before he had time to properly answer.
“Do you think it’s just hype or not?” Padilla interjected.
“Climate change is a real and global phenomenon —” Wright began to answer.
“Is it hype or not?” Padilla again interrupted.
“I stand by my past comment,” Wright replied.
Padilla is one of many far-left Democrats and activists who have recently blamed climate change for the severity of wildfires ravaging California, rather than on the myriad failures (see here, here, here, here, and here) from local and state government to prepare for disasters, combined with the high speeds of the Santa Ana winds.
RELATED – WSJ: California Fires Due to Bad Politics, Not Climate Change
During the hearing, left-wing climate change protesters interrupted proceedings at least five times. At one point, the interruption was significant enough that lawmakers demanded the committee recess until Capitol Police could get protesters under control. The Capitol Police arrested ten people in connection to Wright’s confirmation hearing, Fox News correspondent Chad Pergram reported.
The exact comments from the protesters are muffled and unclear, although it appears they tried to link fossil fuels to climate change, with one protester yelling that the hearing was happening “as L.A. burns.”
“I’m 18 years old, and I want a future,” another protester screamed.
Each of the protesters were quickly whisked out of the room by security, with senators calling for mutual respect and the end of disruptions to the hearing.
The left-wing Sunrise Movement, a climate change group that pushes for the Green New Deal, protested outside of Wright’s confirmation hearing, according to the group’s posts to X.
“As fires level entire neighborhoods in Los Angeles, the last thing we need is to put an oil CEO in charge of energy policy,” the group wrote over a picture of activists holding yellow signs that read “Reject Wright.”
The activists said they were joined by Democrat Sens. Ed Markey (R-MA), Bernie Sanders (D-VT), and Ro Khanna (D-CA) and claimed Wright’s confirmation is a “threat to our democracy and our future.”
Throughout the hearing, Wright made clear he believes in policies that will increase energy, while simultaneously respecting the environment, improving quality of life for Americans, and reducing costs.
“Climate change is a global challenge that we need to solve, and, and the trade-offs between those two are the decisions politicians make, and they’re the decisions that’ll impact the future of our world and the quality of life,” he said.
“I am for improving all energy technologies that can better human lives and reduce emissions. They go together,” he added.
Wright was also afforded the opportunity to address the California wildfires later in the hearing.
“Seeing people suffering, seeing people in pain, seeing people lose family members, lose their property, lose their sense of self, lose their security is absolutely heart wrenching. It’s horrible to watch what’s happening in L.A. today,” he said. “These are the kinds of things we want to protect people from. We want to make our society more resilient, stronger. There’s no words to say in the middle of a personal trauma that reflect global policy…”
“These are human tragedies that touch every one of us. I lived in California for 19 years, have lots of friends in the L.A. area. I will probably get emotional talking about it,” he added. “It’s horrific to see what’s happening there. We need to do everything we can to get those fires out, to get that infrastructure rebuilt, and to get people to return to the lives they had before it was visited on by these horrific fires.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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