Press Release from Sen. Maria Cantwell, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources:
Cantwell To Trump: Protect Our Planet With The Same Zeal You Protect Your Golf Courses
Trump Cited ‘Global Warming And Its Effects’ in Application To Build a Sea Wall Around His Irish Golf Course
Download a PDF of Sens. Cantwell’s letter here.
Washington, D.C. – Today, Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) wrote to President Trump about his differing approach to combating climate change as a businessman compared to his positions and actions as a politician.
“Taking measures to protect your own assets from climate change while simultaneously sabotaging our nation’s efforts to do the same is duplicitous and unacceptable,” Senator Cantwell writes. “Today I am asking Donald Trump, the President, to acknowledge what Donald Trump, the businessman–and 97% of the world’s scientists–already know: climate change is real and we must do something about it. If you do that, I am confident we can work together to protect the American people and economy from the fallout associated with climate change with the same zeal you’ve shown for protecting your golf courses.”
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), climate change has already resulted in rising sea levels and severe weather events that are occurring more frequently and with greater intensity. They advise that the U.S. needs a national strategy to fight climate change, maximize investments, achieve efficiencies, and better position the government for success. However, Trump’s funding priorities in the FY 2018 budget proposal and changes to federal programs and policies from executive actions will decrease the federal government’s ability to address climate risks and increase taxpayer fiscal exposure.
See the full GAO report comparing Trump’s America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again and the March 28, 2017 Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth with GAO’s Limiting The Federal Government’s Fiscal Exposure by Better Managing Climate Change Risks HERE.
“As thousands gather in Washington, D.C., this weekend to express the need to take decisive action to address climate change, I write out of profound concern regarding your recent Executive Orders and directives that recklessly propose to rescind and eliminate policies designed to address the long-term economic costs of carbon pollution,” Senator Cantwell continued.
“This appears to be a fact you have acknowledged, when it comes to protecting your own assets. According to reports, you applied to build a 200,000-ton rock wall to protect one of your golf courses in Europe from, as the application states, “an increase in sea level rise as a result of global warming.”
The full text of the letter can be read below and found here.
Dear Mr. President:
As thousands gather in Washington, D.C., this weekend to express the need to take decisive action to address climate change, I write out of profound concern regarding your recent Executive Orders and directives that recklessly propose to rescind and eliminate policies designed to address the long-term economic costs of carbon pollution. You’ve recognized these costs when it comes to your own business interests; but these same impacts are threatening the American economy.
Data prepared by the Rhodium Group and the World Resources Institute suggest that the policies announced during your first 100 days in office will, by 2025, increase annual U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases by 900 megatons – more than Germany’s total emissions. Your actions will raise annual global emissions by 2%, causing even greater damage.
I was deeply dismayed to learn earlier this spring that, when pressed about the economic impacts of sea level rise and extreme weather, senior White House officials responsible for briefing the contents of your March 28 Executive Order on climate change reflected ignorance of their associated costs.
I was also shocked to hear OMB Director Mulvaney tell a group of reporters that government programs designed to prevent and minimize the impact of climate change are “a waste of [taxpayer] money.”
According to the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s National Climate Assessment, ignoring the threat of climate change will cost U.S. taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. This is because of the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, which will grow more costly over time.
This appears to be a fact you have acknowledged, when it comes to protecting your own assets. According to reports, you applied to build a 200,000-ton rock wall to protect one of your golf courses in Europe from, as the application states, “an increase in sea level rise as a result of global warming.”
Out of similar concerns, Senator Collins and I have asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to evaluate what it will cost the Federal government to respond to the damage caused by climate change. That analysis is due to be completed this summer, and I strongly suggest you pay attention to its conclusions. The attached analyses compiled by GAO paint a very stark picture.
For example, without mitigation, climate change is expected to cause $5 trillion in damage to coastal properties in the next 75 years. Coastal damage will be one of the largest drivers in federal climate change-related spending—totaling a projected $78 billion by late century just in coastal disaster relief. As you know well, Mar-a-Lago is located on a barrier island off the Florida coast. These are the kinds of locations particularly vulnerable to catastrophic weather events.
But in addition, flood insurance costs are expected to rise. And as the GAO has noted, “the federal government owns and manages facilities and land vulnerable to climate change–DOD alone estimates its property replacement value is close to $850 billion.” Moreover, it’s estimated policies that further delay needed reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will cost our economy $150 billion a year.
Mr. President, the economic impacts of rising sea level and extreme weather are precisely the kind of phenomena that require us to take collective action to address climate change. Taking measures to protect your own assets from climate change while simultaneously sabotaging our nation’s efforts to do the same is duplicitous and unacceptable.
Today I am asking Donald Trump, the President, to acknowledge what Donald Trump, the businessman–and 97% of the world’s scientists–already know: climate change is real and we must do something about it. If you do that, I am confident we can work together to protect the American people and economy from the fallout associated with climate change with the same zeal you’ve shown for protecting your golf courses.
I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Maria Cantwell
United States Senator
HSUS’ Pacelle Doesn’t Pass His Own Smell Test
I seriously considered awarding Wayne Pacelle, the head of the biggest fraudulent and corrupt entity posing as an animal welfare institution, the Humane Society of the United States(HSUS), with the Tom Remington Horse Excrement Award. That would be giving him more recognition than he deserves and raising his moral standards up a bit.
True to HSUS’ deceitful ways, Pacelle attempts to discredit long-time outdoor writer Tom Hennessey for presenting facts about bears and bear hunting. Pacelle accuses Hennessey of twisting the facts and calls Hennessey’s opinion piece of work of slander against HSUS.
Pacelle then spends the remainder of his piece of propaganda lying like a well worn rug in the entrance way of a house of ill repute.
Pacelle and his fraudulent HSUS are the biggest liars in the world. Nothing they say is ever true. The only way they can function is to lie, cheat and steal because nobody in their right mind who knows the truth about HSUS would give them one thin dime.
Pacelle knows he is a fraud but he must pay his enormous salaries and so he walks the walk and lies the lies.
And yet, our media, our society, props this clown and his corrupt organization up by making them appear legitimate. HSUS is a political lobbying organization and yet our own corrupt government allows HSUS, a non profit, to lobby when rules forbid it. What does that tell us about both HSUS and the Federal Government. Because Washington is corrupt, HSUS is sheltered. Pacelle knows that and that is why he does and says what he does because he knows there are no repercussions, only more money to be made fraudulently.
So, for Pacelle to try to discredit Hennessey is about as dishonest as is the entire corrupt organization for which he is the front man.
Pacelle should return to Washington and continue hanging out with all his sleazy, slime-ball buddies roaming the halls of Congress and the White House.