WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on whether to confirm Jeffrey Bossert Clark, an attorney who represented BP during the litigation following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster, to be assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). If confirmed, Clark would lead DOJ's enforcement of environmental laws and regulations.
Clark is a prominent denier of climate change, frequently critiquing greenhouse gas regulations and the Clean Power Plan, which aimed to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, and has played a key role in litigation over the DOJ’s finding that emissions endanger public health and welfare. Clark was a key figure in industry’s challenges to the EPA’s “endangerment finding” that set the scientific basis for all subsequent attempts to regulate greenhouse gases, including from autos and industrial sources.
In response, Sierra Club Senior Director, Federal Lobbying and Advocacy Melinda Pierce released the following statement:
“Defending BP after their Deepwater Horizon disaster killed 11 people and injured 17 more isn’t justice. Denying climate change which threatens the livelihoods of American families isn’t justice. Opposing the Clean Power Plan which decreases dangerous air and climate pollution isn’t justice. Claiming that pollution doesn’t endanger public health and welfare isn’t justice. Everything Jeffrey Bossert Clark has done in his career to date proves he can’t be trusted to defend and enforce the environmental laws that protect our communities.
“Clark is the exact opposite of who we need leading our Department of Justice’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division. The Sierra Club is committed to fighting for our families, our communities, and our environment, and we urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to oppose this unjust, dangerous and destructive nomination.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.