We’re joining NY Renews, a coalition of 100 environmental, community and labor groups, to call on Governor Cuomo and U.S. Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to reject Donald Trump’s nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
Pruitt leading the EPA will be disastrous for our environment and the communities in New York and elsewhere that will bear the brunt of climate change.
Pruitt is a climate change denier. He’s openly advocated against the Clean Water Act. And he has a relationship with the fossil fuel industry that should make anyone concerned about our Earth’s climate very nervous.
The EPA was created for a reason: To protect the water we drink and the air we breathe. Now, after years of progress in reducing fossil fuel emissions and beginning a transition to renewable energy, Donald Trump’s administration is poised to double down on expanding fossil fuel infrastructure and extraction at a time we can least afford it.
Here in New York, Governor Cuomo can forcefully stand up to Trump’s dangerous environmental agenda by including the nation’s most ambitious climate policy—the Climate and Community Protection Act, or NY Renews—in his 2017 budget. And he must work to end a Republican minority’s hijacking of our New York State Senate by uniting New York Democrats to form a majority so our state can actually pass progressive legislation like NY Renews.
NY Renews would commit our state to moving to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 and provide needed resources to the most impacted communities to defend against climate change’s effects.
New York can break free from fossil fuels – even under a Trump administration. But we need real leadership from Governor Cuomo to do it.