Chuck Schumer showing his true stripes. Taken from Schumer's Facebook page. Plenty of platitudes without any substance.
Senator Chuck Schumer 50 mins · The task of keeping our public lands public and pristine and our air and water clean and safe is more important today than ever before. Our government needs leaders that will put the health and safety of Americans, and the integrity of scientific research, above corporate polluters or special interests. Unfortunately, it’s clear that President Trump’s nominees for Department of Energy (Governor Rick Perry) and the Department of Interior (Congressman Ryan Zinke) are the wrong people for this job.
Governor Rick Perry is disturbingly unqualified to handle our country’s nuclear arsenal, and his close ties to big oil and consistent denial of the science of climate change should deeply concern every American. Facts are facts: Climate change is real, human activity is driving it, carbon is choking our planet, temperature is rising, polar ice is melting, and our country must take appropriate action to address it. Period.
Congressman Zinke would head an agency responsible for conservation of our public lands and natural resources, but his willingness to do the bidding of fossil fuel industry and support of expanding drilling and extraction on public lands is deeply troubling and puts that mission in jeopardy. His wavering record on the issue of selling public lands provides further proof he would be an unreliable defender of our public lands – something no outdoor enthusiast, and no New Yorker or American should find acceptable. For these reasons, I will oppose the nominations of Governor Perry for Energy Secretary and Congressman Zinke for Interior Secretary.