Trey Pollard trey.pollard@sierraclub.org
See the Messages Welcoming the NMA to the Trump Hotel
here, here, and here. A video of the action is available here.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With the coal industry’s lobbying wing paying big bucks to Donald Trump’s business interests to take up quarters in the Trump Hotel in DC for a conference this week, the Sierra Club offered a bright, shining welcome to those arriving for the festivities. Messages about climate action, the dangers of fossil fuels, and a just and equitable recovery for Puerto Rico were projected on the outside of Trump Hotel last night for all the participants to see -- including the coal executives who’ve been reaping the benefits of the Trump Administration’s assault on clean air, clean water, and climate safeguards and the Administration officials like Rick Perry who have been carrying out those assaults and are joining the conference.
“The Trump Administration has slashed clean air and water safeguards to let the coal industry pollute without limits, and now the coal industry is thanking Trump by sending some business his way,” said Maura Cowley, Director of the Sierra Club’s Resist Campaign. “We want Trump and these coal millionaires to know we see what they are doing behind closed doors and they can’t hide from the American people who will hold them accountable for assaulting our health and our climate.”
Images from the projection on the Trump hotel - which included messages such as “Help Puerto Rico, Not Coal Millionaires,” “Corporate Polluters Enter Here,” and “Now is the Time to #ActOnClimate” are available here, here, and here. A video of the action is available here.
Among the first bills Trump signed into law was a provision allowing the coal industry to dump its waste from mountaintop removal mining into streams and waterways. Since then, his administration has carried out an array of assaults on our air, water, and climate that is extensive, including but definitely not limited to: proposing to slash the EPA’s budget by more than 30%, including efforts to defund climate science, ending restrictions on coal mining on public lands, planning to repeal the first-ever safeguards on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, planned to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement, and rescinded or reconsidered safeguards that keep coal ash and toxic metals out of our waterways. Just this week, Energy Secretary Rick Perry pushed FERC to implement a rule to bail out failing coal plants and the EPA missed a deadline to enforce safeguards curbing dangerous ozone pollution. Perry spoke to the NMA this morning.
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.