Trump's Energy Adviser Is Dangerously Anti-Environment
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Trump's Energy Adviser Is Dangerously Anti-Environment

Of course he thinks the globe is cooling.

In a move that will shock no one, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has elected a climate science denying, pro-oil and gas, anti-EPA congressman to head up his energy policy initiative.

Fossil fuel advocate Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) has been dangerously portrayed as the lesser of two evils when held up against Trump's staunch anti-climate change beliefs. In recent media reports, the North Dakota congressman is overwhelmingly referred to as a mere climate "skeptic," and was credited with persuading the billionaire candidate to consider embracing carbon cuts and a working partnership between Congress and scientists.

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Rep. Cramer has a long history of voting against environmental measures that would enforce stricter regulations on natural resource extraction and fossil fuel emissions. The congressman currently serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and has been a leading voice in the opposition against President Barack Obama's monumental climate change legislation, the Clean Power Plan.

In the last three years, Rep. Cramer has voted to pass 97 bills and amendments that the League of Conservation Voters considers "anti-environment" policies.

During a lengthy interview with environmental news outlet ClimateWire, the congressman stated that while he doubts the findings of leading climatologists, he doesn't "resist the reality that we're heading toward or our goal is a more carbon-constrained world," and voiced support for implementing a small carbon tax in place of other EPA regulations.

Underplaying the magnitude of Rep. Cramer's fossil fuel legacy sets a slippery precedent for how environmental issues are prioritized throughout an election where climate change barely even registers as a key theme on either side of the aisle. And with Trump as the only Republican candidate currently in the running, voters deserve full transparency regarding the viewpoints held by people responsible for laying out his campaign policies.

The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.

Donald J. TrumpNovember 6, 2012

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While Rep. Cramer may seem preferable—and in some cases, even moderate—on climate issues when compared to Trump, here's a congressional scorecard that proves energy policies under his guidance would result in unchecked greenhouse gas emissions, habitat destruction, and a terminal reliance on fossil fuels.

Climate "skeptic" or flat out denier?

Rep. Cramer has repeatedly been profiled as a climate change "skeptic" who refutes the validity of scientific evidence for global warming, yet "accepts" the nation's inevitable course toward carbon reduction. But the politician isn't simply a skeptic—he's a head-in-the-sand obstructionist and mouthpiece for fossil fuel powers fighting to repeal some of the nation's strongest environmental protections.

The congressman once pledged to oppose all climate change legislation, as part of the "No Climate Tax" initiative started by the Koch-founded Americans for Prosperity conservative advocacy group.

In a speech condemning wind farm mandates, he accused the EPA of manufacturing fictitious climate science, stating that "the idea that CO2 is somehow causing global warming is on its face fraudulent."

During a preceding on the Keystone XL pipeline, he proclaimed: "There is that sense of the Senate that climate change is real and not a hoax. Now, we can throw that out as sort of meaningless."

And last year, in a push to eliminate carbon restrictions for power plants, Rep. Cramer admitted that he purposefully avoids the issue of anthropogenic climate change, and that it didn't even matter to him whether or not it was real.

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"We're dealing with it in reality, and my concern is more on the solution to it than it is on the climate change issue itself. What I do reject is the notion that somehow the power sector in the United States of America is going to bear the burden and the responsibility for fixing the entire world," he said.

In the pocket of the fossil fuel lobby

Campaign finance watchdogs have tracked hundreds of thousands of oil and gas dollars to Rep. Cramer's accounts in exchange for sponsoring pro-drilling legislation.

According to Maplight, a nonpartisan nonprofit, the congressman received received $222,400 from the oil and gas industry between 2013 and 2015.

Energy analysts at Fractracker Alliance estimate the Rep. Cramer has accepted $343,000 in campaign financing from fossil fuel lobbyists.

His largest donor, according to OpenSecrets, is oil giant Tesoro, which has a refinery in Rep. Cramer's home turf of North Dakota. In 2015, the North Dakota was the second largest crude oil-producing state in the US, and was responsible for 12.5 percent of total US. production.

Out with EPA regulation, in with a negligible carbon tax

Trump's new energy adviser has also tirelessly fought against the Clean Power Plan, which would enact the first ever nationwide limit on pollution from power plants. When asked about how he would recommend the presidential candidate deal with the legislation, Rep. Cramer replied, "'I would still tell him, 'Yeah, we need to stop and repeal the Clean Power Plan."

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Earlier this year, the congressman and fellow representatives filed an amicus brief in support of state petitions requesting the EPA's historic climate policy be struck down. The regulations have been endorsed by many environmental groups, but Rep. Cramer insists the plan would be detrimental to consumers and small business owners reliant on the coal industry.

Instead of government-led environmental oversight, Rep. Cramer has expressed his desire for a small carbon tax that would fund "clean fossil fuel research" and replace the entire Clean Power Plan.

Additionally, in response to the Obama administration's new methane regulations for oil and gas manufacturers this year, he was equally adversarial, stating that the ruling was a " one-size-fits-all sledgehammer on the fossil fuel industry."

As far as other energy regulations and incentives go, Rep. Cramer has voted to let a key wind energy production tax expire, to allow states to lease energy rights on federal lands, to reduce restrictions on offshore energy production, and to invest a total of $23 million in coal mining and refineries.

The congressman will be writing at least two white papers outlining Trump's energy policies in the coming months.