Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry appeared before the Senate committee that must approve his nomination on Thursday morning, and his first order of business was to walk back his recommendation to eliminate the Energy Department when he ran for president in 2012.
Perry, the Republican ex-governor of an oil-rich state who nevertheless embraced the promise of renewable energy, told the members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that he now regrets suggesting during a presidential candidate debate that the department was expendable -- so expendable that he couldn't recall its name even while calling for it to be scrapped.
Perry then went on to tell the senators that he believes climate change is occurring, and that it is the result of both natural forces and human activity. The question, Perry said, is how to address climate change in the future in such a way that it doesn't compromise economic growth.
Trump, by comparison, famously called climate change a "hoax" perpetrated by the Chinese.
Perry said when it comes to meeting the nation's energy needs, he favors an "all of the above approach," that includes further development of coal and oil resources, but also includes further development of renewable sources of energy.
Perry pointed to his own experience championing wind energy development in Texas as what he'd like to do on the national stage.
The energy secretary-designee also criticized the Trump transition team's decision to send a questionnaire to the department seeking the names of those who worked on Obama administration climate policy efforts.
Perry said he wasn't a member of the Trump team when the questionnaire went out, but that he doesn't approve of it.
"I don't need that information. I don't want that information," he said.
Environmentalists and many in the scientific community saw the transition team move as a heavy-handed attempt to go after top scientist at the agency.
Democratic lawmakers criticized the questionnaire, calling it the product of a political witch hunt that if allowed to continue could have a chilling impact on federal workers and climate scientists.
According to the Texas Tribune, wind energy production increased over 9,000 percent during Perry's 14 years as governor.
“In 2000, wind farms generated just 116 MW of capacity on the state’s main electric grid. That number soared to more than 11,000 MW under Perry, with wind fuels about 10 percent of all generation the newspaper reported in December.
Wind energy now accounts for about 10 percent of all electricity in Texas, and Perry is credited with the creation of a $7 billion renewable energy zone and transmission network that connected windy and largely empty West Texas to the state's growing cities in the eastern part of the state.
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