Washington, D.C. (March 28, 2017) - U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) sent a letter to President Trump urging him to rescind the Executive Order issued today that attempts to reverse multiple major U.S. initiatives to combat climate change.
The Senators joined eight other U.S. Senators from six Western states in writing that the Order "fails to bring clean energy jobs to our rural communities, ignores the impacts that extreme weather will have on our economy and our national security, and does not decrease our reliance on foreign oil."
"We stand ready to work with you and your Administration in reaching a balance between achieving energy independence, promoting innovation, and growing our rural economies," the Senators wrote in the letter. "Unfortunately, your Executive Order takes the nation in the wrong direction. In order to account for the unique needs of our Western states, we respectfully request you rescind the Energy Independence Executive Order."
The Senators outlined several reasons the President should rescind the Order, including that it fails to:
- Address the issue of creating jobs, or account in any way for a real and effective solution to support coal communities to revitalize their local economies and create 21st century job opportunities.
- Support the clean energy industry, one of the fastest-growing sources of new jobs in the country and New Mexico. (Collectively, the wind and solar industry accounts for nearly 144,000 jobs and more than $83 billion in existing capital investment in Western states.)
- Consider the economic impacts of extreme weather events on rural communities, such as increasing crop premiums for farmers and loss of snowpack for the ski industry,
- Make our country more secure and less reliant on foreign oil.
U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-N.V.), Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) signed the letter.
Full text of the letter is available here.