Perry, in White House bully pulpit, teases the French and vows to make nuclear 'cool'

WASHINGTON — The senior officials who spend the most time in the White House press room have grown a bit weary of it all — the jousting, the egos, the high-wire act that could end with being chewed out in the Oval Office or mocked on late-night television.

Tuesday's guest star at the not-so-daily televised briefing couldn't get enough of it.

Rick Perry, the energy  secretary and former Texas governor, spent 40 minutes bantering with reporters. He eagerly defended President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate deal, despite his misgivings about the move.

He wisely sidestepped a question about whether he still believes Trump is a "cancer on conservatism," as he asserted during the 2016 primaries.

He boasted about his job growth record in Texas; swatted away criticism of coal, fracking, nuclear power and his nuanced and evolving stance on climate change; and poked fun at the French — even as he averred that one of the Texas Republic's main allies knows how to party.

It was classic Perry and he must have felt pretty good about it, because the Energy Department's press shop later tweeted out a  clip of the boss smiling and calling on someone, with the description, "[That feeling when] you nailed the White House press briefing."

Coal? It's clean, Perry insisted, citing technological improvements that allow plants to cut 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions. "I don't know how high you have to raise the bar to make some people happy," he said.

Making nuclear energy 'cool' again

Trump aides have taken heat from journalists for avoiding delicate topics by maintaining they haven't had a chance to ask the president about a controversial tweet or comment. Perry took the same tack when asked if Trump still believes that climate change is a "hoax," as he asserted during the campaign.

Said Perry, whose post makes him one of the key administration players on climate policy, "I have not had that conversation with him."

At another point, he lamented that nuclear energy isn't as "cool" as it was during his Texas A&M days.

"One of the things we want to do at DOE is to make nuclear energy cool again," he said, recalling that "at my alma mater, there were a lot of young boys and girls who wanted to be nuclear engineers. That's not so much the case today because this industry has been strangled all too often by government regulations."

Cable news channels often carry the press secretary's briefings live. Perry's part was largely preempted by coverage of the GOP health care bill meltdown in the Senate. If he knew that at the time, he showed no sign he minded.

Protect the environment or grow the economy? That, Perry argued, is a "false argument" perpetuated by the Obama administration. "We can do good for both and we will."

He pointed to his record in Texas — one that's somewhat disputed by his critics.

"There were 7 million people added to the population rolls while I was governor. ... That's a lot of pickup trucks on highways. That's a lot of non-point source pollution, correct?"

And yet despite conventional wisdom, he said, Texas managed to see both job growth and lower pollution levels.

There were no "oops" moments of the sort that derailed his 2012 campaign and planted the seeds of doom in 2016. There was a sense that if Perry had won, he would have spent a lot more time with reporters than Trump, who rarely holds news conferences.

Perry's take on Paris pullout

In April, Perry called publicly for renegotiating the Paris climate deal rather than withdrawing from it outright. That surprised some Perry observers, given his ties to the Texas energy sector. Trump ended up pulling the United States out despite the resistance, and Perry has become an enthusiastic cheerleader and defender of the move.

"The Paris Agreement put the taxpayer on the hook for a costly deal. It was $1 billion already out the door. Thankfully, this president had the good sense to step in before billions more had been committed," Perry said, taking the opening to tout innovation back home. "That Petra Nova plant, just on the outskirts of Houston, Texas, uses a process to remove 90 percent of the carbon dioxide after coal is burned to generate energy in a clean way. Then it uses that captured carbon for enhanced oil recovery."

Perry trod carefully around the biggest political landmines in his portfolio. Pressed repeatedly for his stance on whether the federal government should pick Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the dump site for nuclear waste, he demurred. He snubbed a Las Vegas reporter who tried to get his attention repeatedly for a follow-up on Yucca Mountain.

Taking cover on climate change

He also picked his words on climate change. Last week, Ernest Moniz, energy secretary in the Obama administration, chastised him for denying well-established science by denying the human role in dangerous climate change. Perry insisted that he wants only to debate the proper response.

"What I said was climate is changing. Always has," he said. "Man at this particular point in time is having an effect on it. How much effect is what's at debate here. And more importantly, what is the United States going to do to affect that?"

Should Trump accept an invitation from the new president of France, Emmanuel Macron, to visit on Bastille Day, July 14? "I would always look at an invitation to a party as a good thing," Perry quipped.

On the other hand, he added, "This is the country that wouldn't buy Texas beef for some reason."

France established an embassy in Austin during Texas independence, and Texas had an embassy in Paris. Perry made sure to impart that history from the podium, by way of illustrating his high regard for the French, particularly in their embrace of nuclear power, which accounts for either 70 percent of  76 percent of their electricity — he cited both figures.

But he said, "The French are a little different when it comes to some things."

Relishing the moment

With deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders hovering nearby, Perry kept taking questions, some ranging far from his cabinet portfolio.

He embraced the chance to talk about health care policy — at least in general terms — because, he said, the debate touched on his favorite topic, federalism. (In 2010, preparing to run for president, Perry published a book devoted to the topic titled Fed Up!)

"I know for a fact that Connecticut is not like Texas. They're just not," said Perry, reverting to well-worn lines from his days as a governor and presidential candidate. "And to say that Washington, D.C., can come up with a one-size-fits-all solution to health care that's going to address all of this and do it in an economically feasible, thoughtful way is just so much nonsense. It's just -- you know that's not true."

When Sanders, whose dad served as Arkansas governor, finally got her turn at the podium, she said: "I don't think anybody will question whether or not Secretary Perry's a high-energy guy. ... Great guy, wrong football team, but that's probably for another day."