Donald Trump has now confirmed what many climate activists have known since the beginning: He will not be a friend of ours. His selection of climate denier Scott Pruitt as Environmental Protection Agency administrator confirms our worst suspicions. What about his meeting with Al Gore? Trump is an entertainer, and that was just part of the show.
Trump’s and Pruitt’s priorities will align with the companies that poison our Earth, not with the people who inhabit it. As head of the EPA, Pruitt will make it easier for corporations to pollute our land, water, and air to benefit their bottom lines. The job-creating solar sector, the Paris Agreement, the Clean Power Plan — all will be under attack. And people of color and low-income communities have the most to lose.
Climate activists will have a lot to defend in the next four years, but defense is not enough. We don’t have time to waste in fighting climate change. We must make up the ground we are likely to lose at the federal level. State and local elected officials will have to take the lead with bigger and bolder solutions. And they’ll need to lead with environmental justice at the center of the solut... Read more
