Trump threat fires up U.S. climate
activists, draws in more
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[November 12, 2016]
By Laila Kearney
(Reuters) - Seattle financial worker
Harrison Karlewicz had been considering joining an environmental
activist group for a while. The day after Donald Trump won the White
House, he signed up.
"That was a big push for me, kind of a wakeup call," the 25-year-old
said, after joining 350 Seattle, a group that stages mass protests
against fossil fuel use. "I thought, 'I don't feel involved. I want to
get out there.'"
During his campaign, Trump said global warming was a hoax and called for
the Environmental Protection Agency to be gutted. He promised to
"cancel" the Paris climate agreement between the United States and
nearly 200 other countries to slow climate change, and he pledged to
revive the coal industry.
Karlewicz represents what environmental activists say is the silver
lining of Trump's electoral victory: Environmentally minded people
angered by the outcome are rallying to their cause.
At 350 Seattle, people packed a volunteer drop-in meeting after news of
Trump's confirmed win, said organizer Emily Johnston. The group blocked
a rail line in Washington state that transports oil to Shell and Tesoro
refineries earlier this year.
"This was surprising to me, because I personally was so shaken that I
felt practically paralyzed, and I know many other people did, too,"
Johnston said. "The fact that many others responded by immediately
engaging is incredibly heartening."
Jay O'Hara, a Vermont-based climate-change activist with the Climate
Disobedience Center and a mastermind behind a coal shipment blockade in
2013 that spurred more radical fossil fuel activism, said Trump's win
represents an opportunity for environmentalists to focus on a clear
enemy.
"In some ways, it can almost be seen as a relief,” he said of Trump's
win. "We are going to have a real fight here, or maybe an actual
argument."
Johnston, of 350 Seattle, who camped for a week at North Dakota's
Standing Rock Sioux reservation to protest pipeline construction, said
that protesters would continue to take advantage of the vulnerability of
energy infrastructure.
"All these pipelines, all these tankers, all these trains have to go
through thousands of miles" and could be potential protest targets, she
said.
DEFENDING GAINS
Some of the well established national environmental organizations that
helped draft the Obama administration's environmental initiatives, like
the Clean Power Plan to curb carbon dioxide emissions, will be shifting
to a defensive posture under Trump's leadership.
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"We'll be in the Congress, in the courts, in the boardrooms and in
the streets," said Gene Karpinski, president of the Washington-based
League of Conservation Voters, which backed Trump's Democratic rival
Hillary Clinton and spent over $45 million to support candidates in
the 2016 elections.
Karpinski said he expected legal action to prevent Trump from
following through on his agenda.
Trump has appointed Myron Ebell, a known climate skeptic, to guide
the reshaping of the EPA, and Trump energy adviser Kevin Cramer, a
U.S. representative from North Dakota, said Trump is likely to
target the Clean Power Plan and Waters of the United States rules
during his first 100 days in office.
Dan Farber, an environmental law professor at the University of
California, Berkeley School of Law, said the best that advocates for
climate change action could hope for from courts is to “play
successful defense against an anti-environmental onslaught” from the
new administration.
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“It’s a fairly grim situation,” he added.
Several groups also said they would put a greater focus on
state-level environmental initiatives to sidestep Trump's
administration.
The Sierra Club, which is headquartered in California, said it would
push ahead with its Beyond Coal campaign, which has led to the
retirement of hundreds of coal plants since it was launched more
than a decade ago. The campaign mobilizes local activists and
lawyers to push utilities and state regulators to shutter older
plants and replace them with renewable energy.
"Clearly, we are going to have to fight and resist the worst
impulses of the next administration," said Michael Brune, Sierra
Club's executive director. "But we are also mindful that despite all
odds, we were able to make great progress during the Bush
administration and we hope to do it again."
(Reporting by Laila Kearned in New York; Additional reporting by Nia
Williams, Nicole Mordant, Valerie Volcovici, and Lawrence Hurley;
Editing by Simon Webb and Cynthia Osterman)
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