'Flat out wrong': Trump pick slammed by the scientists whose work he quotes

President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Department of Energy, oil executive Chris Wright, has a long history of sneering at scientists who warn about the dangers of manmade climate change.

But the Washington Post reports that many of the scientists are now hitting back.

As the paper writes, Wright is fond of rattling off figures from scientific studies that purportedly show that a warming planet has been beneficial on the grounds that fewer people are dying from cold weather. Additionally, he has cited studies that purportedly show that rising global temperatures have not led to increasingly intense hurricanes and other natural disasters.

The Post got into contact with some of the authors of the studies that Wright has cited and they said that he has twisted their findings to reach his own conclusions.

“What he is saying is flat out wrong,” said Jim Kossin, a climate scientist who authored a section of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that detailed an increase in dangerous weather.

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Other researchers who spoke with the Post said that Wright had "cherry-picked" favorable passages from their research to downplay the dangers of climate change while ignoring the vast majority of their findings showing that it poses a serious threat to humanity.

"Their complaints are important because Wright would have deep influence on U.S. climate policy if confirmed," writes the Post. "The Energy Department sets regulations for the fossil fuel industry, drives research into energy technologies and guides the future of electric power distribution. As energy secretary, he would be in a key position to carry out Trump’s vision for rolling back clean-energy subsidies."

As the Post notes, Wright also has a Trump-like flair for showmanship, such as when he posted a video of himself drinking fracking fluid to demonstrate that it had no ill health effects.