[env-trinity] Trump appoints worst enemies of salmon, Delta and environment to transition team

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/12/1597679/-Trump-appoints-fish-destroying-anti-environmental-extremists-to-transition-team




Trump appoints fish-destroying anti-environmental extremists to  
transition team

by Dan Bacher

If anybody had the tiniest illusion that incoming President Donald  
Trump would appoint somebody who cares about the Delta, Klamath River,  
fish and wildlife and the environment to his transition team, it was  
quickly dispelled with the appointment of two anti-environmental  
extremists to his team after he was elected.


On Friday, Representative Devin Nunes (CA-22), one of the most  
aggressive Congressional proponents of increasing Delta water exports  
to agribusiness and opponents of fish and wildlife restoration in  
California and the West, joined the 16-member executive committee of  
Donald Trump’s transition team.

“Today I was honored to have been named to the executive committee of  
President-elect Donald Trump's transition team,” said Nunes in a  
statement. “In this role, I will advise President-elect Trump on the  
appointments of his Cabinet members and on appointments to other top  
positions in the new administration. I look forward to helping to  
assemble an energetic and forward-looking team that will capably lead  
our country toward more economic growth, greater opportunity, and a  
safer homeland for all Americans.”

Nunes chairs the House Intelligence Committee and disagrees with Trump  
on issues including so-called “free trade" deals. Nunes is a backer of  
the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that Trump  
claims he will stop.

However, Nunes told McClatchy News this week that he believes Trump  
supports corporate agribusiness interests on the west side of the San  
Joaquin Valley in their push to export more Delta water. Nunes has  
been one of the greatest advocates for the weakening of the Endangered  
Species Act, Clean Water Act and other landmark environmental laws.

“The good thing is, he is more up to speed on water infrastructure  
than any other president we’ve had,” Nunes said. “Out here, everything  
is water, water, water.” (www.sacbee.com/...)

It gets worse. Politico reported Wednesday that David Bernhardt, a  
lawyer who co-chaired the natural resources department at the firm  
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and served as a George W. Bush  
Interior Department official, is leading the transition's Interior  
Department team.

According to Congressional disclosures, his current lobbying clients  
include the Westlands Water District, considered the Darth Vader of  
California politics by Tribes, fishermen and environmentalists, and  
one of the biggest proponents of exporting more Delta water. Bernhart   
represented the Westlands Water District on litigation involving the  
Delta and the Endangered Species Act. (www.politico.com/…

Other members of Trump’s transition team include Silicon Valley  
billionaire Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and a board member  
of Facebook; Trump's sons and daughter Ivanka; and Trump campaign CEO  
Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News LLC, who  
has worked as an investment banker with Goldman-Sachs, filmmaker and  
political consultant.

Trump's “rumored cabinet wishlist” includes Sarah "Drill, baby, Drill"  
Palin as Secretary of the Interior; anti-EPA Texas Ag Commissioner Sid  
Miller as Secretary of Agriculture; and fracking billionaire Harold  
Hamm as Energy Secretary, according to Michael Brune, Executive  
Director of the Sierra Club.

Trump hasn't taken a specific position on the Governor Jerry Brown's  
"legacy" project, the Delta Tunnels, but his comments to date on  
California water have shown a strong embrace of the campaign by  
corporate agribusiness interests to pump more water from the Delta at  
the expense of Delta smelt and salmon populations.

At a rally at the Selland Arena in Fresno, on May 27, 2016,  Trump  
appeared to agree with the claims of some growers that there is no  
drought in California.

“When I just left, 50 or 60 farmers in the back and they can’t get  
water. And I say, ‘How tough is it; how bad is the drought?’ 'There is  
no drought, they turn the water out into the ocean.’ And I said I’ve  
been hearing it and I spent a half an hour with them it’s hard to  
believe.” (www.slate.com/...)

He also claimed that the subsidized water that growers should have  
received was washed out to sea in an effort to protect “a certain kind  
of 3-inch fish," referring to the Delta smelt, an endangered indicator  
species that demonstrates the health of the San Francisco Bay-Delta  
Estuary.

“Believe me, we’re going to start opening up the water so that you can  
have your farmers survive,” said Trump.

Alex Breitler, Stockton Record reporter, pointed out, “’Opening up the  
water’  implies increasing the volume of water exported south from the  
Delta, exports that are blamed in part for the long-term decline of  
the fragile river estuary west of Stockton. The Delta ecosystem  
suffers from a kind of perpetual drought because more than half of its  
fresh water historically has been diverted for human use.” (www.recordnet.com/...)

Many of those opposed to the construction of the Delta Tunnels fear  
that Governor Brown may try to make a deal with the Trump  
administration to back the construction of the California Water Fix,  
his "legacy project.  On Thursday, Brown issued a statement saying his  
administration would do its part  “to find common ground whenever  
possible” while “protecting the precious rights of our people” and  
confronting “devastating climate change.

Brown stated, “Today we saw the beginning of the transfer of power to  
the President-elect.

While the prerogatives of victory are clear, so also are the  
responsibilities to ensure a strong and unified America. As President  
Lincoln said, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ With the  
deep divisions in our country, it is incumbent on all of us –  
especially the new leadership in Washington – to take steps that heal  
those divisions, not deepen them. In California, we will do our part  
to find common ground whenever possible.

But as Californians, we will also stay true to our basic principles.  
We will protect the precious rights of our people and continue to  
confront the existential threat of our time – devastating climate  
change.

E PLURIBUS UNUM.”

While I strongly support the Governor's call to protect people’s  
rights and to confront climate change, I fear that the “common ground”  
that the Brown administration will find with the Trump administration  
will be on tunnels, new dams and fracking. We must stop Brown from  
working with Trump to weaken landmark laws like the Endangered Species  
Act and Clean Water Act in order to fast-track the completion of the  
California Water Fix before he leaves office.

The two 35-mile long tunnels under the Delta would make the Delta, San  
Francisco Bay and our ocean waters into a giant aquatic graveyard. We  
must drive a stake into the heart of this project and stop it from  
pushing Delta and longfin smelt, Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento  
River winter-run Chinook salmon, green sturgeon and other fish and  
wildlife species into extinction — and prevent Brown and his  
administration from making any deals with the Trump that will push  
forward the tunnels, as well as new dams and fracking.

Caleen Sisk, chief and spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe,  
affirmed the Tribe’s plan to resist any plans by the Trump or Brown  
administrations to sacrifice salmon, the environment and human rights  
at the altar of corporate greed.

“Now we share the definition of ‘Endangered’ with all the other  
species,” said Chief Sisk after the election. “The Winnemem Wintu have  
been there since California Statehood....surviving is a challenge when  
you are losing your waters and food supply. You must never quit the  
fight to survive with the salmon!”

While Brown poses as a “climate leader” and “environmentalist” at  
climate conferences, he is heavily backed by agribusiness billionaires  
and the oil companies — the same corporate interests that have funded  
Brown’s reelection and proposition campaigns, including Proposition 1  
in 2014. These are the same corporate interests that Trump and his  
transition team represent.

Trump's transition team just released their “energy” plan. Their  
statement is absolutely chilling for anybody who cares about fish and  
wildlife, people, water, the environment and the public trust:

‘Rather than continuing the current path to undermine and block  
America's fossil fuel producers, the Trump Administration will  
encourage the production of these resources by opening onshore and  
offshore leasing on federal lands and waters. We will streamline the  
permitting process for all energy projects, including the billions of  
dollars in projects held up by President Obama, and rescind the job- 
destroying executive actions under his Administration. We will end the  
war on coal, and rescind the coal mining lease moratorium, the  
excessive Interior Department stream rule, and conduct a top-down  
review of all anti-coal regulations issued by the Obama  
Administration. We will eliminate the highly invasive "Waters of the  
US" rule, and scrap the $5 trillion dollar Obama-Clinton Climate  
Action Plan and the Clean Power Plan and prevent these unilateral  
plans from increasing monthly electric bills by double-digits without  
any measurable effect on Earth's climate.’
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