Trump Touts ‘Dirty-Fuels-First Plan’ at Fracking Conference

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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of fossil fuel industry executives at the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh Thursday making it clear that he is continuing to push a fossil fuel agenda.

“America is sitting on a treasure trove of untapped energy—some $50 trillion in shale energy, oil reserves and natural gas on federal lands, in addition to hundreds of years of coal energy reserves … [and] it’s all upside,” Trump said to the crowd made up of executives from Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, and the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association.

Trump said the country needs an “America-First energy plan” and touted his ideas to “open up federal lands for oil and gas production, open offshore areas, and revoke policies that are imposing unnecessary restrictions on innovative new exploration technologies.”

His “American Energy Renaissance” also includes:

  • Streamlining the permitting process for all energy infrastructure projects, including the billions of dollars in projects held up by President Obama.
  • A temporary moratorium on new regulations not compelled by Congress or public safety.
  • Unlocking America’s shale oil and gas.
  • Renegotiating America’s trade deals, and the enforcement of trade rules.

Environmentalists slammed Trump’s self-proclaimed energy revolution which, as he reiterated Thursday, would end the war on coal and scrap the $5 trillion Obama-Clinton Climate Action Plan and the Clean Power Plan.

“Donald Trump … takes talking points from the biggest polluters in the country to slap together his disastrous energy positions,” Sierra Club political director Khalid Pitts said.

“Trump’s dirty-fuels-first plan is pretty simple: drill enough off our coasts to threaten beaches from Maine to Florida, frack enough to spoil groundwater across the nation, and burn enough coal to cook the planet and make our kids sick. In stark contrast, Hillary Clinton is the only candidate in this race who is committed to grow the booming clean energy economy to create jobs and help tackle the climate crisis.”

Greenpeace USA spokesperson Cassady Sharp agrees. “Donald Trump proved again that he is an unfit leader with no grasp on reality,” she said.

“Trump pandered to the Marcellus Shale industry today, singing the praises of a dangerous energy extraction process that threatens the health and safety of families and communities all over this country, and promising to slash critical regulations and the EPA [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency]. This man has no business dealing with America’s energy policy, and he would be a belligerent catalyst of catastrophic climate change if he were elected president.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxk3-k8tAIc

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