Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent voiced support for fossil fuel development in emerging economies, criticizing the push for renewables-only energy solutions as unrealistic for countries facing basic economic challenges.
What Happened: “Energy abundance sparks economic abundance,” Bessent wrote Wednesday on X. “Developing countries can’t afford the luxury belief that all energy must be renewable energy.”
Speaking at the Institute of International Finance Global Outlook Forum during the IMF World Bank Spring Meetings, Bessent emphasized that people in developing nations are “simply trying to put food on the table—not virtue signal to their friends and colleagues.”
Bessent called for an “all-of-the-above approach” that includes both fossil fuels and renewables where feasible. He stressed that affordable baseload generation, often from gas and other fossil fuels, must …