WASHINGTON (CN) – As environmentalists prepare for the fallout of Donald Trump’s commitment to coal power and oil drilling, those industries are celebrating the Republican’s presidential ascendancy.
Underneath a banner calling for monthly donations to “protect our planet from Trump,” Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune warned in a Nov. 10 blog post that “the election of Donald Trump could be devastating for our climate and our future.”
“Donald Trump now has the unflattering distinction of being the only head of state in the entire world to reject the scientific consensus that mankind is driving climate change,” Brune added.
The reference speaks to a Twitter post by Trump on the campaign trail, in which he called global warming a hoax "created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."
Trump later denied this stance in the presidential debates, but has maintained that he would cancel the Paris climate agreement and "stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs."
Trump also said vowed to revoke the Clean Power Plan, a hallmark of the Obama administration that requires a 32 percent reduction of carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants across the nation by 2030, relative to 2005 levels.
The Sierra Club, a champion of the plan, hopes Trump will reconsider this position too.
“Campaigning is one thing; governing is another,” the post from Sierra’s Brune says. “Trump must choose whether he will be a president remembered for putting America and the world back on a path to climate disaster, or for listening to the American public, investing in the fastest-growing sector in the U.S. economy – clean energy – and keeping us on a path of climate progress.” (Emphasis in original.)
One stance that Trump has solidified since his Nov. 8 election meanwhile is his pledge to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency.
Myron Ebell, the climate-change skeptic Trump tapped to lead the EPA transition, is a longtime lobbyist at Competitive Enterprise Institute.
The Washington Post reported that ExxonMobil is a big donor for the conservative policy group, which has also received funding from Donors Trust.
Though no law requires that Virginia-based organization to disclose its contributors, the Post says it is staffed largely by people who have worked for Koch Industries or nonprofit groups supported by the conservative Koch brothers.
Oil and gas groups meanwhile are celebrating Trump’s promise to double down on coal- and shale-energy extraction, while rebuffing sustainable energy options like solar power and wind farms.
"Our industry stands ready to help America reach its energy potential while creating jobs and economic prosperity," said Don Santa, president of the International Natural Gas Association, in a statement.
American Petroleum Institute president Jack Gerard voiced similar optimism Thursday at a press conference.
"We have found through market conditions and at the start of this energy renaissance, we can be a leader in world production and at the same time, address climate concerns rather than have a divisive conversation about who is a believer or a denier," Gerard said.
"Mr. Trump said we can do this in such a way to protect the environment and create more jobs and help local communities,” Gerard added. “Voters said overwhelmingly that they want their economy to come back. We believe some of the regulatory approach in the past put in the finger on the scale of using certain energy forms and the government shouldn't be in the business of picking winners and losers."
A representative from the Trump campaign did not return multiple requests for comment, but Trump has long dismissed solar power as too costly for taxpayers.
