Trump’s Dirty Energy Nightmare a Wake-Up Call for the Country

WASHINGTON -- President Trump opened a new front Thursday in his all-out assault on our environment and health, vowing a vast expansion of fossil fuel development on federal lands and waters and increased federal backing for U.S. energy exports, as the Interior Department announced plans to expose new ocean areas in the Arctic, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico to the hazards of oil and gas operations.

Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, made the following statement:

“Trump’s dirty energy nightmare is a wake-up call for the country. He wants to retreat from millions of clean energy jobs, expose our oceans and coasts to the next BP-style disaster and turn our country into a national sacrifice zone to fuel prosperity abroad. We get the harm, foreign countries get the power, and big oil, gas and coal take the profits. 

“That’s not great - it’s disastrous. We’ll stand up for cleaner, smarter ways to power our future - at home and abroad."

For a more detailed reaction to the Interior Department’s move to open additional ocean waters to oil and gas drilling, see this blog by Alexandra Adams, senior advocate in NRDC’s oceans program: https://www.nrdc.org/experts/alexandra-adams/trump-admin-tears-drilling-plan-eyes-opening-our-coasts

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The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 2 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Chicago; Bozeman, Montana; and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.