This article was first published in Common Dreams and is reprinted with permission here.
Climate campaigners reacted to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s selection of Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate Monday by highlighting the Ohio Republican’s climate denial and strong support for the fossil fuel industry—one of his top campaign contributors.
“Like Donald Trump, J.D. Vance has proven that he will make it a top priority to roll back climate protections while answering to the demands of oil and gas CEOs,” Sunrise Movement communications director Stevie O’Hanlon said in a statement. “Vance is one of Congress’ biggest recipients of donations from oil companies.”
“J.D. Vance not only flip-flopped on supporting Trump, he flip-flopped on climate,” she continued. “He went from expressing concern about climate change before running for the Senate, to voting to gut [Environmentl Protection Agency] protections and denying that there even is a climate change crisis.”
O’Hanlon added: “J.D. Vance will sell out to the highest bidder, whether that’s Trump or the fossil fuel industry. That makes him dangerous. Donald Trump was the worst president for climate in U.S. history. J.D. Vance will empower Donald Trump to enact even worse damage on our planet in a second Trump administration.”
Some of Trump’s key first-term Cabinet appointees—including Rex Tillerson, his first secretary of state, and Ryan Zinke, who headed the Interior Department—were former fossil fuel executives or had track records of supporting the oil, gas, and coal industries.
Trump’s White House tenure was also marked by an aggressive rollback of climate and environmental regulations and protections.
Food & Water Watch Action Deputy Director Mitch Jones said that “just like Trump himself, J.D. Vance is a fossil fuel backer and climate change denier that poses a serious risk to public health and our environment.”
“Among the countless reasons that Trump and Vance shouldn’t be elected to lead our country, the duo represents an existential threat to a livable climate future for all Americans and people around the globe,” Jones added.
J.L. Andrepont of 350 Action asserted that “we are facing a dire need to ward off further climate catastrophe and injustice, so let’s be clear: J.D. Vance is another climate-denying authoritarian who poses massive danger to this country.”
“He has praised the horrific Project 2025 plan and said there are ‘good ideas in there,'” they continued. “He says he would be totally fine with a federal ban on abortion. And as the effects of climate change accelerate at an alarming pace right in front of our eyes, Vance is a strong supporter of the oil and gas industry who claims that climate change is not a threat.”
“We must reject him and all climate deniers at the polls,” Andrepont stressed.
