When it comes to preventing sexual assault, Energy Secretary Rick Perry has a truly unprecedented suggestion: using more fossil fuels.

Perry's head-scratcher of a suggestion came Thursday morning when he took part in an energy policy discussion hosted by Axios and NBC News. How exactly are fossil fuels supposed to prevent sexual assault? Let's connect some dots.

First, even though he once forgot the department he heads existed, Perry has been adamantly pro fossil fuels (and anti climate change) throughout his short tenure as U.S. Secretary of Energy. During Thursday's panel, he rehashed a story from a recent trip to Africa, sharing an anecdote about a young girl who said electricity is important to her because she'd no longer have to "read by the light of a fire and have those fumes literally killing people."

He then expanded upon the other benefits of expanding electricity that's powered by fossil fuels.

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

Can we all agree that the idea that sexual assault can be stopped by simply turning on a few lights is both ludicrous and offensive to anyone who's survived such an experience? And as noted by the good folks over at Splinter, Perry seems to be "a little confused" on the concept of light and how it pertains to the righteousness he speaks of (after all, there's a "difference between literal and metaphorical light here").

What this seems to be is an instance of a cabinet member trying to capitalize on a pervasive societal issue—one that's been at the forefront of public discourse due to the onslaught of sexual misconduct allegations against numerous men in positions of power, including his boss Donald Trump—and use it as a means to advance his own agenda. Perry has close ties to the oil industry and even sat on the board of the company contracted to build the Dakota Access Pipeline. Never mind that numerous companies are trying to bring more cost-effective solar-powered energy to Africa, Perry wants to keep this antiquated energy system going. And he made a case for it in the most cynical way possible.

What makes this even worse is how Perry's asinine viewpoint on sexual assault is completely commonplace in the current administration. In September, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos recently rolled back protections for sexual assault survivors on college campuses. Last week, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed that the administration thinks all the women who have brought sexual misconduct allegations against the President are liars. Perry's comments are undoubtedly insulting, but the sad truth is they're completely standard in Trump's White House.