NextGen Climate’s Weekly Recap: The World is Watching the GOP
At the Republican National Convention this week, the GOP spent four days kowtowing to corporate polluters and ignoring the real issues facing working families. At the beginning of the convention, the GOP adopted their official party platform, and it is even more dangerous and harmful than expected. The platform calls for the Environmental Protection Agency to be gutted, giving corporate polluters free reign to poison our air and water. Republicans gathered in Cleveland also promised to end the Clean Power Plan and reject the landmark Paris Climate Agreement. Instead of embracing the opportunity to create millions of good-paying American jobs by transitioning the U.S. from dirty fossil fuels to a clean energy economy, the GOP wants to double down on Big Coal and Big Oil. After speeches from the likes of fossil fuel cheerleader Harold Hamm and Senator Mitch McConnell, maybe they should change their name to the Grand Oil Party!
While the internal discord within the GOP might have made headlines, Republican Senators across the country are unified in their loyalty to Donald Trump and his toxic energy agenda. Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey and Nevada Congressman Joe Heck tried to hide their allegiance by skipping the convention—NextGen Climate kept them honest. Protesters in Pittsburgh asked Toomey “do his job” and give Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a hearing, a Constitutional duty of the Senate. Meanwhile, young voters in Nevada protested outside of Joe Heck’s office in Las Vegas to demand climate action. Heck has already publicly endorsed Donald Trump, highlighting that Heck puts corporate polluters ahead of Nevada voters.
Voters are rejecting Trump’s dangerous agenda—and they’re speaking out across the country. That’s why NextGen Climate mobilized Americans from Waterloo to Concord to protest Donald Trump’s dangerous and hate-filled agenda, and support action to address climate change. NextGen Climate partnered with progressive organizations across the country to host events protesting Trump’s dangerous ideas in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, and Nevada on the same day that he formally accepted his party’s nomination for president.
Young voters across the country are already rejecting Trump and the GOP, and next week the Democratic party is set to adopt the most progressive platform in its history, with a pledge to transition the U.S. to 100% clean energy by 2050. NextGen Climate will continue to educate and empower young voters so Trump is defeated in November and America becomes ‘the clean energy superpower of the 21st century.’
Washington Post: GOP platform, which calls coal ‘clean’, would reverse decades of U.S. energy and climate policy
The Republican Party platform adopted Monday night would bring a total about-face on U.S. energy and climate policy, declaring that the priority placed on combating climate change under President Obama “the triumph of extremism over common sense, and Congress must stop it.”
Reuters: Exclusive: Trump considering fracking mogul Harold Hamm as energy secretary – sources
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is considering nominating Oklahoma oil and gas mogul Harold Hamm as energy secretary if elected to the White House on Nov. 8, according to four sources close to Trump’s campaign.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Toomey says he’s closer to giving Trump his support
A small group from Planned Parenthood and NextGen Climate protested against Mr. Toomey across the street from the seafood restaurant, holding signs and chanting.
Reno Gazette-Journal: Protesters rally over clean energy; bash on Trump, Heck
Protesters met at Rounds Bakery and worked their way to the Republican Party headquarters on 3652 S. Virginia St. They held signs that read “Dump Trump,” “Don’t tread on our planet,” “Gold ticket for Heck if we frack,” “Make America gay again” and “Stop Heck.”