October 01, 2020 / By mobanmarket
Capping off a week that saw him nominate a known climate skeptic to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and put forth a fossil fuel CEO as potential secretary of state, President-elect Donald Trump said in a Sunday interview that “nobody really knows” if climate change is real.
When asked by “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace where he stands on the issue, Trump responded: “I’m still open-minded. Nobody really knows. Look, I’m somebody that gets it, and nobody really knows. It’s not something that’s so hard and fast.”
He also claimed to be “studying” the Paris Agreement and whether to withdraw, saying, “I don’t want that agreement to put us at a competitive disadvantage with other countries.”
The comments came days after reports that Trump’s Energy Department transition team has been asking for the names of civil servants that worked on environmental policies under President Barack Obama, sparking fears of a coming “climate purge” by the incoming administration.
Indeed, the Trump administration’s energy agenda, recently revealed by PRWatch, “collectively amounts to a fossil fuel industry wish list…which would be devastating for attempts to slow climate change.”
And the Guardian writes:
Meanwhile, his likely selection of ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of state is stirring the ire of environmentalists who describe the Big Oil magnate as “no friend of the planet.”
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In a statement this weekend, Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter declared Tillerson’s likely nomination to be “a frightful prospect for our planet.”
“If confirmed,” Hauter said, “Tillerson would have an unprecedented platform to promote drilling and fracking for oil and gas around the world at the expense of clean energy and our climate.”
Given past statements by Tillerson and Exxon’s top leadership, Hauter added: “We must presume that aggressive opposition to renewables—and environmental protection at large—would become official policy in a Trump-Tillerson State Department.”
Drawing a comparison between Trump’s cabinet appointments thus far and the counsel of his daughter, Ivanka—who “appears to be establishing a role as the one person who might prevent the Trump administration from undoing all of the progress made by the Obama administration in cutting US carbon pollution”—Guardian blogger Dana Nuccitelli writes Monday:
“The winner of this battle will determine whether the Trump name forever becomes synonymous with climate heroism or villainy,” Nuccitelli concludes. “So far, the villains are winning bigly.”
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Trump and his “demons” appear to be at least partially out of step with members of their own party. While a recent Pew poll showed fewer than a quarter of Republican respondents believe climate change to be the result of human activity, the same survey found widespread, bipartisan report for expansion of wind and solar industries. It also found that most Republicans (69 percent among moderate or liberal Republicans and 48 percent of conservative Republicans) say climate scientists should have a major role in policy decisions related to the climate.
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