Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke slammed wind power at an oil conference, but his facts were lousy

Ryan Zinke.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston on Tuesday that "there's no such thing as free energy," which is undeniably true. But in arguing that the costs were roughly equal for various forms of energy production, he marshaled some alternative facts.

"Certainly oil and gas and coal have a consequence on carbon," Zinke told the oil and gas executives and others at the conference. But solar energy takes land out of use for recreation and hunting, he said, and "we probably chop us as many as 750,000 birds a year with wind, and the carbon footprint on wind is significant."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.