The parade of deplorables keeps coming. Trump has selected a climate change denier as Secretary of the Interior, the official responsible for protecting our nation’s great parks and natural resources.

 

This is from the website of the Department of the Interior:

 

“Mission Statement
“Protecting America’s Great Outdoors and Powering Our Future

 

“The Department of the Interior protects and manages the Nation’s natural resources and cultural heritage; provides scientific and other information about those resources; and honors its trust responsibilities or special commitments to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and affiliated island communities.”

 

— from the DOI Strategic Plan”

 

 

Environmentalist David Helvarg writes in The Progressive:

 

“For anyone who saw Al Gore’s meeting with Ivanka and Donald Trump at Trump tower the other day as a potential sign that there might be a cute calf under the pile of what Trump has called climate change “bullshit,” you can stop digging now.

 

“For Secretary of Interior, Trump has picked Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers from eastern Washington, a climate change denier with a zero rating from the League of Conservation Voters. She has called for more oil and gas exploration on both public lands and Native American tribal lands. McMorris Rodgers was a co-sponsor of a 2011 bill that would have sold off 3 million acres of public lands. She has also worked against EPA protections of wetlands and streams under the Clean Water Act, held hearings critical of the National Environmental Protection Act, and claims the Endangered Species Act is costing the hydroelectric industry too much money to protect wild salmon. No wonder Seattle PI columnist Joel Connelly wrote McMorris Rogers’ “never met a wilderness she did like.”

 

“In her free time she has opposed marriage equality and the Violence Against Women Act, offering a watered down alternative.”

 

Will we see fracking in the Grand Canyon? Oil wells in Yellowstone? Trump hotels and casinos in every national park?