Energy Secretary Rick Perry claimed Thursday that fossil fuels help prevent sexual assault, a baffling assertion that prompted the Sierra Club to call for his resignation, The Hill reports.
Speaking to Meet the Press host Chuck Todd and Axios founder Jim VandeHei on Thursday, Perry described his recent trip to South Africa. "It's going to take fossil fuels to push power out into these villages in Africa, where a young girl told me to my face, 'One of the reasons that electricity is so important to me is not only because I'm not going to have to try to read by the light of a fire and have those fumes literally killing people,'" Perry said. "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."
The Sierra Club's executive director, Michael Brune, responded by saying Perry "does not deserve to hold office another day with these twisted ideas, and he should resign from his position immediately before he causes any more damage."
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