This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience while browsing it. By clicking 'Got It' you're accepting these terms.
Most recent
Trending
Top Videos
The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!
Rex Tillerson Approved by Senate Committee for Secretary of State
By Jon Queally
In a vote strictly along party lines, Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to confirm former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State on Monday.
Despite unified opposition from Democrats on the committee and a campaign by climate action and corporate accountability groups, Tillerson's confirmation now passes to the full Senate where the Republican majority is nearly certain to finalize his appointment.
Those who opposed Tillerson most aggressively responded to Monday's vote by calling Republicans "spineless" and promised that the confirmation would only serve to further unify climate activists and the broader anti-Trump movement.
"The Senators voting to confirm Rex Tillerson have clearly left their spines at home. Instead of standing up to a historically unpopular president, they're letting Trump hand the State department over to the oil and gas industry," said Naomi Ages, the climate liability campaigner for Greenpeace.
"Confirming Rex Tillerson over the opposition of millions of Americans will be a call to action," continued Ages. "To avoid the worst effects of climate change, we must unite and resist the hostile takeover of our government by the oil and gas industry."
May Boeve, executive director for 350.org, offered a similar response, saying, "This committee just knowingly handed our international climate diplomacy over to a rogue oil mogul. The brazen attacks on climate from Tillerson and Trump's corrupt cabinet will be met with tremendous backfire and resistance at every turn. We will come together, relentless and stronger than ever, as we speak truth to power."
On social media, the #RejectRex hashtag feed was used to promote opposition to Tillerson's confirmation was filled with equally harsh reactions after the vote:
Reposted with permission from our media associate Common Dreams.
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
The most important international climate talks since the Paris agreement was reached in 2015 have been delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Oil rigs around the world keep pulling crude oil out of the ground, but the global pandemic has sent shockwaves into the market. The supply is up, but demand has plummeted now that industry has ground to a halt, highways are empty, and airplanes are parked in hangars.
Under an agreement negotiated by community groups — represented by NRDC and the Pennsylvania Utility Law Project — the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) will remove thousands of lead water pipes by 2026 in order to address the chronically high lead levels in the city's drinking water and protect residents' health.
Trump Administration Finalizes Car Rule Which Will Worsen Economy, Public Health
By Dave Cooke
So, they finally went and did it — the Trump administration just finalized a rule to undo requirements on manufacturers to improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new passenger cars and trucks. Even with the economy at the brink of a recession, they went forward with a policy they know is bad for consumers — their own analysis shows that American drivers are going to spend hundreds of dollars more in fuel as a result of this stupid policy — but they went ahead and did it anyway.
Trending
By Richard Connor
A blood test that screens for more than 50 types of cancer could help doctors treat patients at an earlier stage than previously possible, a new study shows. The method was used to screen for more than 50 types of cancer — including particularly deadly variants such as pancreatic, ovarian, bowel and brain.