Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) today joined nine U.S. Senators from six Western states on a letter to President Trump urging him to rescind the Executive Order issued today that attempts to reverse multiple major U.S. initiatives to combat climate change.
The Senators wrote that the Order “fails to bring clean energy jobs to our rural communities, ignores the impacts that extreme weather will have on our economy and our national security, and does not decrease our reliance on foreign oil.”
“We stand ready to work with you and your Administration in reaching a balance between achieving energy independence, promoting innovation, and growing our rural economies,” the Senators wrote in the letter. “Unfortunately, your Executive Order takes the nation in the wrong direction. In order to account for the unique needs of our Western states, we respectfully request you rescind the Energy Independence Executive Order.”
“Climate change is expected to reduce snowpack and streamflow in the West, decreasing water supplies and harming our public lands and national parks that will become even more vulnerable if not protected, and the $646 billion outdoor recreation economy, which would hurt countless communities like those in Nevada that rely on the outdoor recreation economy for revenue and jobs,” the letter continued.
The Senators outlined several reasons the President should rescind the Order, including that it fails to:
· Address the issue of creating jobs, or account in any way for a real and effective solution to support coal communities to revitalize their local economies and create 21stcentury job opportunities.
· Support the clean energy industry, one of the fastest-growing sources of new jobs in the country. (Collectively, the wind and solar industry accounts for nearly 144,000 jobs and more than $83 billion in existing capital investment in Western states.)
· Consider the economic impacts of extreme weather events on rural communities, such as increasing crop premiums for farmers and degraded public lands.
· Make our country more secure and less reliant on foreign oil.
U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Tom Udall (D-NM), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) signed the letter.
Click HERE to read the letter in its entirety.