Perry argued that the climate change debate should not be centered on whether the climate is changing or whether man is "having an effect on it".
Contrary to what Perry and Pruitt say, however, climate scientists in the USA and globally agree that human influence is the dominant cause of global temperature rise since the mid-20th century. "The question should be just how much, and what are the policy changes that we need to make to effect that?" said Perry, who heads up an agency he once said he would like to see abolished along with the commerce and education departments.
Perry's view contradicts mainstream climate science, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Perry's department is charged, in part, with researching technologies created to green the energy sector, a leading producer of emissions.
Perry did not dispute that mankind's activities contributes to climate change but asserted that there was still debate over how to address the problem.
"This idea that the science is absolutely settled and if you don't believe it's settled, then you are somehow another Neanderthal, that is so inappropriate from my perspective", he said on Monday on CNBC's "Squawk Box".
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In what is a home-coming of sorts, Hashim Amla was announced as the Proteas marquee player for the Durban-based franchise.
Perry said, however, that being a skeptic about the causes of climate change was "quite all right".
Pruitt said on Squawk Box in March that he didn't believe Carbon dioxide was what caused climate change.
Far from being a key cause of climate change, "the world's oceans are actually another victim of greenhouse pollution", Wolf said.
Wolf added that the Earth's oceans were becoming increasingly acidic because they have absorbed "most of man-made global warming's excess heat, putting tremendous stress on marine life".
Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Monday repeated his long-held position that carbon emissions are not primarily responsible for global warming.
Perry is scheduled to testify three times this week on the Trump administration's proposed fiscal 2018 budget. But his Energy Secretary is now on record as saying continued skepticism is warranted. The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century, "a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere", the agencies said in a joint statement. I think you're going to be fine with that. Perry knew exactly the question he was being asked and gave an evasive answer.
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