Another “oops” moment for Rick Perry?

Talking about a recent trip to Africa, the U.S. energy secretary and failed former presidential candidate from Texas said fossil fuels could help prevent sexual assault.

Rick Perry now heads one of the federal departments he once said should be abolished, and it’s the very department that he couldn’t recall during a presidential campaign debate when he was asked to name the three departments he wanted to shut down. He became well known for acknowledging his lack of recall with the one word, “Oops.”

His refusal to accept climate change as driven by human activity — a stance that he now reiterated — brought immediate condemnation from the Sierra Club. The environmental organization demanded Perry resign after his remarks.

“Speaking during an energy policy discussion about energy policy with ‘Meet the Press’ host Chuck Todd and Axios CEO and founder Jim VandeHei, Perry … said a young girl told him that energy is important to her because she often reads by the light of a fire with toxic fumes,” The Hill reported.

“But also from the standpoint of sexual assault,” Perry said. “When the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will on those types of acts.”

NBC News added that the former Texas governor who ran for president twice also said that he does not believe that humans are the main drivers of climate change, telling the moderators: “I still think the science is out.”

The Sierra Club called on Perry to resign.

He came under wider assault:

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