Not willing to sit idle as Donald Trump and his cabinet take office and roll out an avowedly pro-fossil fuel, anti-regulation agenda, campaigners are preparing for a multi-faceted affront to the new administration.
Tuesday marked the beginning of the 115th Congress, and thus also marked “Day 1 of the official pushback against Trump’s climate agenda,” according to 350.org’s Duncan Meisel.
“Their first job is to review Donald Trump’s nominees for cabinet,” Meisel wrote in an email Tuesday, “and ours is to make sure they reject the slate of climate deniers he has picked for every major climate and energy related position in his administration.”
Pointing specifically to Trump’s selection of ExxonMobil’s CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt for EPA head, former Texas Governor Rick Perry for Department of Energy, and Rep. Ryan Zinke for Department of Interior, campaigners are asking constituents to flood their elected officials with calls and in-person visits to make clear they do not support a climate-denier cabinet.
As part of the near-term “resistance mode,” as 350.org co-founder Jamie Henn put, campaigners are also organizing a Day Against Denial on January 9 that will include rallies, phone-ins, and direct conversations with legislative staff “to pass along the message that we, as constituents and voters, do not accept Trump’s dangerous nominations,” according to the website.
Beyond the confirmations, 350.org and other environmental groups are preparing for a far greater show of resistance.
In an email to supporters on Monday, Henn announced the People’s Climate Mobilization, on April 29, 2017 in Washington, D.C..
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