Advocating for U.S. energy independence and expanded development of fossil fuels, local energy expert Bill Whitsitt discussed the federal Energy Information Administration’s 2016 Energy Outlook Assessment on Thursday night.

Whitsitt spoke at the monthly meeting of Act for America’s Flathead chapter.

Now retired in Bigfork, Whitsitt is a former vice president of public affairs for Devon Energy Corporation, one of the nation’s largest oil and natural gas development firms.

His presentation, “American Energy Independence: Facts and Factions,” took aim at environmental policies designed to reduce fossil fuels development. Defining “factoids” as common assertions widely accepted as fact, he applied the term to President Barack Obama’s claim that 97 percent of climate scientists agree that climate change is “real, manmade and dangerous.”

Whitsitt also criticized the Obama administration’s Clean Energy Plan, which has been widely panned in Montana, a state that would be required to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 47 percent by 2030.

“We should be very proud of our coal industry” that produces low-sulfur coal making up 25 percent of the country’s total reserves, he said.

Whitsitt said the energy outlook shows the nation has reached 91 percent energy independence, of which 80 percent is fossil fuels. He also pointed to the declining role of oil from Saudi Arabia for U.S oil imports. It’s about a third of the volume imported from Canada, which supplies the lion’s share of imported oil.

“This is a very good story if we don’t screw it up, which is distinctly possible in my view,” Whitsitt said.

He said renewable energy is not a bad thing, but wind and solar aren’t “base-load power” sources that can provide power around the clock, and said they are overly reliant on government subsidies to compete economically.

“We need to be working our way out of these mandates and subsidies,” he said.

Asked by an audience member toward the end of the meeting for his opinion on whether manmade climate change is occurring, he responded that climate change is occurring and didn’t rule out greenhouse gas emissions from human sources as a cause.

“It does have some effect on the climate. What we don’t know is how much is from carbon dioxide that we put in, compared to other things,” he said, adding a reference to the theory that sunspots generate natural fluctuations in the Earth’s temperature.