HOUSTON — Energy Secretary Chris Wright slammed the Biden administration’s climate policies on Monday, vowing to support natural gas production.

“The Trump administration will end the Biden administration’s irrational, quasi-religious policies on climate change that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens,” Wright said at the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference. The energy secretary dismissed the previous administration’s focus on climate as “myopic.”

Natural gas is responsible for 43% of U.S. electricity production. There “is simply no physical way that wind, solar and batteries could replace the myriad uses of natural gas,” Wright said.

The energy secretary rejected accusations that he is climate change denier. Wright has previously said there is no climate crisis and carbon dioxide emissions are not a pollutant.

“The Trump administration will treat climate change for what it is — a global physical phenomenon that is a side effect of building the modern world,” Wright said. The energy secretary called Biden’s policies “economically destructive to our businesses and politically polarizing.”

“The cure was far more destructive than the disease,” he said. The Trump administration is pursuing a policy of more energy production and infrastructure to support the reindustrialization of the U.S., the energy secretary said.

Trump, however, issued an executive order on his first day in office removing U.S. coastal waters from offshore wind development. Wright said offshore wind is too expensive when asked whether the administration is targeting wind at the same time it is calling for more energy.

“It’s incredibly high prices, incredibly huge investment and a large footprint on the local communities, so it’s been very unpopular for people that live near offshore wind turbines,” Wright said at a press conference Monday morning.

The energy secretary said the Trump administration supports anything that adds to “affordable, reliable, secure energy.” He indicated that the administration supports the rapidly growing role of solar and is in favor of moving forward on battery storage.

“Wind has been singled out because it’s had a singularly poor record of driving up prices,” Wright said.