Perry is right about the importance of energy in Africa

Resurgent:

In not-so-shocking news, the professional and credentialed Left is once again attacking a conservative as a fool and beclowning themselves in the process. Their target this time? Former Texas governor and current Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

In an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd and Axios’ Jim VandeHei, Perry made a comment that expanding the use of fossil fuels could help prevent sexual assault. The media, predictably, pounced on his comments as an opportunity to mock, belittle, and attack him.
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Here’s Perry’s full statement:

“I just got back from Africa, I’m going to finish up with this, because I think I heard say there are people dying. Let me tell you where people are dying, it’s in Africa, because of the lack of energy they have there,” said Perry. “And it’s going to take fossil fuels to push power out into those 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 going to have to try to read by 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 a light that shines, the righteousness, if you will, on those type of acts. So, from the standpoint of how you really affect people’s lives, fossil fuels are going to play a role in that. I happen to think it’s going to play a positive role,” he continued. “It’s going to take fossil fuels to push power out into those villages in Africa.”

And it’s not just Perry saying this. As the Washington Examiner points out, even the United Nations agrees with Perry, publishing a paper in 2013 that makes almost the exact same points as Perry albeit regarding developing India rather than Africa.

Meanwhile Oxfam, a global anti-poverty organization, makes Perry’s points explicitly.

“Given the challenges of energy poverty, providing energy to households in safe and sufficient quantities is hypothesized to result in myriad positive outcomes, including the following:

• Improved health outcomes: Reduced burning of biomass and kerosene in homes will reduce people’s exposure to harmful pollutants. Access to modern fuels is expected to help prevent the cuts, falls, bites, and episodes of sexual harassment and assault that women and girls might otherwise sustain while collecting fuelwood.”
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There is more.

I have heard other energy experts make the same point that Perry made.  This is another example of liberal arrogance married with ignorance.