What can you do to fight the Trump fossil fuel agenda? Start with Congress this week.
It’s not over — fight back by telling Congress to stop energy rollbacks.
President Trump’s first week in office was full of shocking statements and troubling executive actions.
We watched in disbelief as he revived the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects, championing dirty fossil fuels over Native rights and environmental concerns. Then, we were taken aback as climate change information disappeared from the White House web site and our new administration issued de facto gag orders on federal agencies’ media channels, tightening any information pertaining to climate change (which Trump has mentioned he doesn’t believe in).
These early moves follow up a scary line up of cabinet picks, many of whom are chummy with the oil and gas industry.
Trump’s choice for the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt — affectionately dubbed #PollutingPruitt on Twitter — has sued the very environmental agency he may now lead with accusations of overestimating the amount of pollution caused by drilling.
Trump’s Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson was a CEO of ExxonMobil, a company that avoided the truth of climate change for almost 40 years to avoid losing profits. During both Pruitt’s and Tillerson’s confirmation hearings, neither cabinet picks showed any urgency in addressing an issue that has been a top priority for world leaders and governments.
Trump is clearly serious about making good on his campaign promises laid out in “An American First Energy Plan.” These include:
- Rolling back regulations that protect our air, land and water
- Drilling on “federal land that the American people own”
- Reviving America’s coal industry
Meanwhile, we have a pro-fossil fuel, anti-conservation Congress that continues to wage attacks on our wildlands and recent efforts to reduce the pace of climate change. Together, Trump and Congress are brewing up the perfect storm.
What you can do RIGHT NOW
Trump’s agenda items will take time to play out. We will be keeping our supporters engaged every step of the way.
For now, we must focus with great precision on the fights we can win each week. And this week, the fight is in our anti-conservation Congress.
With Trump’s fossil fuel energy agenda, industry-backed Congress members are already chomping at the bit to open our lands for drilling. This week, they are working to roll back crucial Obama era energy reforms that reduce climate change pollution and waste from drilling on public lands.
You can help defend our wildlands and climate by telling Congress that Americans will not accept such roll backs
Take action to stop rollbacks of oil and gas reforms
Using a brazen and rarely-used law, Congress has unleashed legislation to dismantle Obama-era oil and gas reforms to the Bureau of Land Management’s new methane rule. The reforms were put into place to stop global warming emissions and ensure that taxpayers get a fair return on resources extracted from public lands.
These pollution standards were five years in the making and endorsed by hundreds of thousands of members of the public. This kind of reckless energy policy will continue, and we need to start letting Congress know we are watching their every move.
TAKE ACTION — Tell Congress to stop trying to dismantle oil and gas reforms
More fossil fuel threats to come
Trump’s fossil fuel agenda threatens our natural heritage that belongs to all Americans. In the face of science, Trump’s administration seems determined to undermine all efforts fighting against climate change.
There are still mentions of backing out of the Paris agreement — with diplomatic as well as environmental ramifications — and many of his cabinet nominations seem doubtful at best if human-driven climate change is a threat to our planet.
With recent attacks on scientific integrity of organizations under threat, some Senators have stepped up to urge Trump to reverse moves to silence information coming out of federal agencies, telling the recently inaugurated President that his actions are unfair to the American people who deserve an “open, transparent and honest government.”
We are at a crucial juncture where we need to move away from fossil fuels and towards clean energy, but Trump and the new Congress threaten to pull us back into a hazy past where polluted waterways and scarred landscapes are the norm.
The new administration, in step with Congress, could open up drilling on lands we have deemed “too wild to drill,” like sacred Badger-Two Medicine in Montana, or prioritize drilling over polar bear habitat in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There’s a strong possibility Trump will end the pause on new coal leasing on public lands and shut down progress on ensuring coal companies pay their fair share to taxpayers and moving away from fossil fuels that fuel climate change.
We want to defend our wildlands for future generations, which means moving quickly to stop the congressional push to prioritize fossil fuel interests above the needs of the American people. Help us take a strong stand by calling out Congress on their first action to repeal a rule that is good news for taxpayers and the climate.
