{"id":2390725,"date":"2025-01-15T15:59:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T20:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/protestors-disrupt-chris-wright-hearing-for-energy-secretary\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T16:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T21:02:09","slug":"protestors-disrupt-chris-wright-hearing-for-energy-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/protestors-disrupt-chris-wright-hearing-for-energy-secretary\/","title":{"rendered":"Protestors Disrupt Chris Wright Hearing For Energy Secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fprotestors-disrupt-chris-wright-hearing-for-energy-secretary%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2390725&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>On Capitol Hill, demonstrators interrupted the confirmation hearing for Chris Wright, \u200bPresident-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s nominee for Secretary\u2063 of\u200b the Department of Energy. \u200cThe disturbances peaked\u2064 when a protestor shouted about the ongoing climate crisis during a\u2063 question from\u2062 Senator \u2062Cindy\u200b Hyde-Smith. While the protestor blamed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/liberal-dark-money-network-is-behind-grassroots-support-for-dem-climate-bill\/\" title=\"Liberal Dark Money Network Is Behind \u2018Grassroots\u2019 Support for Dem Climate Bill\">fossil fuel companies<\/a> for\u2062 wildfires, evidence \u200bsuggested that various factors,\u2064 including\u200d mismanaged infrastructure, may\u200c have contributed to these disasters. Throughout the hearing, protests continued, prompting Republican senators to address\u200b the \u2062demonstrators directly, urging them to consider data showing a decrease in U.S.\u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-releases-list-of-president-trumps-accomplishments-and-it-is-historic\/\" title=\"White House Releases List of President Trump\u2019s Accomplishments \u2013  And It Is Historic!\">greenhouse gas emissions<\/a>. Some senators maintained their\u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-desantis-lays-out-plan-to-unleash-american-energy-dominance\/\" title=\"VIDEO: DeSantis Reveals Strategy for &#039;Maximizing US Energy Supremacy&#039;\">pro-fossil fuel stance<\/a>, while Democratic Senator alex Padilla pressed Wright on his\u200c previous\u200d remarks about climate change&#8217;s severity, emphasizing the real impacts \u2063of wildfires in Los Angeles.\u200c Wright acknowledged climate\u200b change as \u2062a significant issue but stood by his earlier comments, leading \u200bto a \u200btense \u2064exchange regarding the seriousness of the\u2062 climate \u200dcrisis.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, demonstrators repeatedly disrupted the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0cxOu2Oy4nA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">confirmation hearing<\/a> for Chris Wright, President-elect Donald Trump&rsquo;s nominee for secretary for the Department of Energy.<\/p>\n<p>The longest interruption came when Wright responded to Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi about halfway through the first round of questions. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The climate crisis is here! L.A. is burning!&rdquo; a protestor shouted, blaming &ldquo;fossil fuel companies and Big Oil billionaires&rdquo; despite evidence the fires <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/mollybohannon\/2025\/01\/14\/what-sparked-the-california-wildfires-experts-consider-power-lines-fireworks-and-arson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">may have been<\/a> ignited by arson and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">inappropriately managed power lines<\/a>. The destruction of the wildfires was magnified by state and local leadership&rsquo;s inability to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/01\/14\/us-news\/drained-la-reservoir-in-worst-fire-ravaged-area-has-repeatedly-needed-repairs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">refill reservoirs<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/10\/if-californians-dont-fire-newsom-hell-burn-whats-left-of-their-home-to-the-ground\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fire hydrants<\/a> and failure to prevent dry vegetation from <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/13\/prescribed-burns-are-the-only-way-for-california-to-avoid-another-catastrophic-fire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">building up<\/a> on poorly maintained land.<\/p>\n<p>Wright calmly sipped his water while Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming banged the gavel to reconvene the hearing as more demonstrators stood with black and yellow cloths with messages for the senators.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I think we figured out it&rsquo;s every other speaker here, so just heads up,&rdquo; said Sen. Hyde-Smith. &ldquo;But I drew out a lot of them.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Lone wolf protestors repeatedly interrupted the hearing throughout Wright&rsquo;s testimony, which provoked several Republican senators to respond directly. <\/p>\n<p>Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana recommended demonstrators examine material submitted by the nominee, which &ldquo;shows that U.S. emissions have come down in absolute amounts, per capita amounts, every way you want to measure it since 2000, since 1990.&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/climate-indicators\/climate-change-indicators-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According<\/a> to data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the combined U.S. greenhouse gas emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and hydrofluorocarbons were lower in 2022 than in 1990.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>Climate change protestor interrupts confirmation hearing of Energy Sec. nominee Chris Wright:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m 18 years old and I want a future!&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TO97WOTV6p\">pic.twitter.com\/TO97WOTV6p<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&mdash; Townhall.com (@townhallcom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/townhallcom\/status\/1879565458179006932?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Freshman Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/wvpublic.org\/after-delay-jim-justice-formally-sworn-into-us-senate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sworn in<\/a> on Tuesday afternoon once his successor took over the governor&rsquo;s office in Charleston, addressed one male protestor who stood up while the senator delivered a speech about the necessity of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I would just tell you just this,&rdquo; Justice said. &ldquo;I think that gentleman is misdirected in his thought. But with all that being said, I would always be respectful to that gentleman, and that&rsquo;s how we all ought to be.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>But while Republicans confronted the demonstrators in the hearing who frequently cited the wildfires as their fuel for outrage, at least one Democrat on the committee tacitly endorsed the message. Sen. Alex Padilla of California opened his line of inquiry with a lecture about the devastating wildfires that have ravaged Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The climate crisis and its deadly effects is very real to my neighbors and my constituents,&rdquo; Padilla said. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve written that the &lsquo;hype over wildfires is just hype.&rsquo;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Given the devastation that we&rsquo;re currently experiencing in Los Angeles, do you still believe that wildfires are just &lsquo;hype?&rsquo;&rdquo; Padilla asked.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It is with great sorrow and fear that I watch what&rsquo;s happening in your city of L.A. and those fires,&rdquo; Wright said. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Do you think it&rsquo;s just &lsquo;hype&rsquo; or not?&rdquo; Padilla said. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Climate change is a real and global phenomenon,&rdquo; Wright said. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Is it &lsquo;hype&rsquo; or not?&rdquo; Padilla said. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I stand by my past comments,&rdquo; Wright said. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Tell that to the families of the more than two dozen lost in these fires, and counting,&rdquo; Padilla said. <\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>California Sen. Alex Padilla asked Chris Wright, a fracking executive and Trump&#8217;s nominee for Energy Secretary, about a time he called wildfires &#8220;hype to justify&hellip;bad government policies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The LA wildfires killed dozens in the past week.<\/p>\n<p>Wright said he stands by his comments. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bssNUGwn0L\">pic.twitter.com\/bssNUGwn0L<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&mdash; More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MorePerfectUS\/status\/1879569967445852500?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Any honest examination of the Los Angeles wildfires, however, indicts incompetent government leadership rather than climate change for the devastation experienced by residents across the West Coast.<\/p>\n<p>Wildfires had never been rare in California until the arrival of western settlement when fire suppression became the standard response to any area set ablaze. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/they-know-how-to-prevent-megafires-why-wont-anybody-listen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According<\/a>&nbsp;to ProPublica, between 4 and 12 million acres burned naturally in prehistoric California every year, but between 1982 and 1998, California bureaucrats only burned an average of 30,000 acres annually. Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, however, cut the state&rsquo;s budget for fire prevention by more than $<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/01\/11\/us-news\/california-gov-gavin-newsom-cut-100m-for-fire-prevention-before-deadly-wildfires-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">100 million<\/a>, and L.A. Democrat Mayor Karen Bass trimmed her city&rsquo;s fire department budget by nearly $<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/01\/08\/us-news\/la-mayor-karen-bass-cut-fire-department-funding-by-17-6m\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">18 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The state&rsquo;s underfunded efforts have struggled to catch up as the mountains and forested areas continue to develop into unmanaged tinderboxes waiting to be ignited either by a lightning strike or a poorly reinforced power line. The Los Angeles Fire Department in particular, which was more <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/09\/here-are-all-the-ways-dei-crazed-officials-made-the-la-fire-more-deadly\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">focused<\/a> on the identities of firefighters than preparing for fires, has only conducted a &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/13\/prescribed-burns-are-the-only-way-for-california-to-avoid-another-catastrophic-fire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">handful<\/a> of prescribed burns in recent years&rdquo; to clear excess fuels.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As of 2019, Los Angeles County had not conducted a prescribed burn in more than a decade, largely due to legal and bureaucratic obstacles,&rdquo; Chuck Devore, a former California lawmaker reported for The Federalist this week. &ldquo;California&rsquo;s all-powerful administrative state is akin to a once-sleek ship gradually being covered with so many barnacles that it can now barely move.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Tristan Justice is a national correspondent for The Federalist and the co-author of &#8220;Fat and Unhappy: How &#8216;Body Positivity&#8217; Is Killing Us (and How to Save Yourself).&#8221; He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan&#8217;s email newsletter <a href=\"https:\/\/socialjusticeredux.substack.com\/about\">here<\/a>. Buy &#8220;Fat and Unhappy&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sz7EDAJI1c\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Protesters disrupted Chris Wright&#8217;s confirmation hearing, shouting about the climate crisis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":2390726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Chris-Wright.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14436,45151,48569,3679,4542],"class_list":["post-2390725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-activism","tag-chris-wright","tag-energy-secretary","tag-hearing","tag-protest"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Chris-Wright.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2390725"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2390729,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2390725\/revisions\/2390729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2390726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2390725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2390725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2390725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}