Cindy Carr, (202) 495-3034 or cindy.carr@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 11 to 10 to confirm Rex Tillerson, former ExxonMobil CEO, as Secretary of State.
During the 2016 election, ExxonMobil contributed nearly $330,000 to 30 Senate Republicans, including Senate Foreign Relations committee members Marco Rubio (FL), Ron Johnson (WI), Todd Young (IN), Johnny Isakson (GA), and Rand Paul (KY). The vote will head to the Senate floor next week.
In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released the following statement:
“Donald Trump may as well be adding the ExxonMobil logo to the State Department sign. It’s incredibly telling that every Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, several of whom received campaign donations from Exxon, voted to appoint that company’s former CEO to be the United States’ ambassador to the world.
“We’re at a critical moment in the fight to tackle the climate crisis, and we need a leader at the State Department who is prepared to meet that challenge head on. Instead, we’ve been offered a climate-denying fossil fuel millionaire who helmed the oil company that concealed its knowledge of climate change for decades. Those aren’t credentials for a diplomat, they are reasons Tillerson should be disqualified. Make no mistake, Rex Tillerson is unfit to be Secretary of State, and we will keep up the pressure on our Senators to oppose his nomination in the Senate floor vote next week.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 2.7 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.