By Timothy Gardner

HOUSTON (Reuters) – U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Monday that global warming is a side effect of building the modern world, and vowed to end former President Joe Biden’s climate policies to promote growth of fossil fuels.

Wright made the comments to kick off CERAWeek, the nation’s largest energy conference, in Houston.

“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,” he said. “Everything in life involves trade-offs. Everything.”

He said that oil, gas and coal were crucial to the global economy and that future energy demand growth was unlimited.

He said the policies that had been implemented by Biden to combat global warming were not effective, including efforts to expand zero-emissions solar and wind power, and encourage the adoption of electric vehicles.

“The cure was far more destructive than the disease,” he said.

The U.S. on Monday approved an extension of Delfin LNG’s exports of liquefied natural gas to big economies in Asia and Europe, one of a series of approvals the administration has done after Biden paused LNG export approvals for about a year to study the economic and environmental impacts of the booming business.

“We’ve gotten a little bit done, we’re hoping to pick up the pace,” Wright told reporters. He said U.S. LNG exports, already the world’s biggest, should double in coming years.

(Reporting By Timothy Gardner and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Mark Porter and Marguerita Choy)