ENERGY/RICK PERRY: “Energy Secretary Rick Perry suggested on Thursday [11-2-17] that increasing fossil fuel use to spread electricity across Africa would help prevent sexual assaults there.
Perry, who traveled to South Africa last week to tout the Energy Department’s partnerships there, said he spoke with a young girl who wanted electricity so she could read without relying on the light of a fire ‘and have those fumes literally killing people. But also from the standpoint of sexual assault.’
‘When the lights are on, when you have light that shines — the righteousness, if you will — on those types of acts,’ he told an Axios event.
Perry was implicitly responding to a protester who yelled that fossil fuels were causing climate change and killing people in poor countries…
Since taking the helm at the Energy Department, Perry has said he doubted the scientific consensus that carbon dioxide was causing climate change, and he has sought to promote the use of fossil fuels, including pushing a plan to financially support coal fired power plants in the U.S.
That access to fossil fuels that the U.S. has would also benefit Africa, he said.”
-Darius Dixon, “Perry: Fossil fuels help prevent sexual assault in Africa,” Politico, Nov. 2, 2017 11:23am