From Fracking Enthusiast to Exxon CEO: Trump’s Latest Picks

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The Donald Trump camp added fracking enthusiast, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) critic and ALEC-linked Amy Oliver Cooke to the EPA landing team on Thursday. Cooke once co-authored an op-ed titled Clean Energy’s Dirty Secret: Cancer.

Trump Tower is President-elect Trump’s transition hub.Wikipedia

NBC’s Joe Scarborough tweeted that Trump is considering ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for the Secretary of State position, following pushback against Mitt Romney’s possible nomination.

“This is like appointing Darth Vader as Secretary of Defense: it’s corruption of the most dangerous kind. Exxon is the largest oil company in the world,” 350.org’s Jamie Henn said. “The company has funded climate denial for decades. It has violated human rights across the planet.”

Meanwhile, the Huffington Post has unearthed audio of Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions arguing that investing in clean energy “is a conspiracy to afflict poor people.”

And, Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm, long considered a top pick for energy secretary, denied he was a contender and told CNBC he suggested Trump instead nominate Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-ND. Cramer, who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from oil and gas interests, has stated he believes the world is cooling and that carbon dioxide is not a greenhouse gas.

Red-state Democrats Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota may also be in the running for the Department of Energy job. Heitkamp, who opposes the Clean Power Plan, meets with Trump today.

For a deeper dive:

Cooke: Greenwire, E&E News, The Hill

Tillerson: The Hill, Climate Home, Reuters, Dallas Morning News

Sessions: Huffington Post

Hamm: CNBC, Fox Business, OilPrice

Heitkamp: Politico, Reuters, The Hill, E&E News

Manchin: Politico, Washington Examiner, Reuters

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