U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband hopes to use the summit to promote his vision of homegrown renewable power, which he says will liberate the country from fossil fuels and the wild gas price swings that have harmed industry and consumers since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Trump administration views this narrative as a direct attack on its interests, which it describes as “energy dominance” through the production and export of fossil fuels. It also claims that vision underplays the vital role gas plays in energy security in countries like the U.K. The U.S. is Britain’s second largest supplier of natural gas.
In a speech last month, Wright said: “We are unabashedly pursuing a policy of more American energy production and infrastructure, not less.” He called the devastating impacts of climate change a “trade off” on the economic progress of the 20th century.
He also lampooned the U.K. for displacing heavy industries to Asia before shipping back the produce. “The net result is higher prices and fewer jobs for U.K. citizens, higher global greenhouse gas emissions — and all of this is a climate policy?” he said.
Some U.S. politicians close to Trump have also picked a fight with Britain’s co-hosts. Senior Republican officials have criticized the IEA, a Paris-based energy club, of which the U.S. is a member.
In February, Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming accused the organization and its Executive Director Fatih Birol of artificially dimming the prospects for coal, oil and gas in its annual forecasts, which are influential guides for energy investment. Barrasso and other lawmakers demanded in December that the IEA “must make it loud and clear that it does not endorse ending investments in oil, natural gas, and coal.”