Trump’s EPA pick: Human impact on climate change needs more debate

Posted on January 28, 2017 by Exposing the Big Game

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/18/politics/scott-pruitt-epa-hearing/

By Dan Merica and Rene Marsh, CNN

Washington (CNN)Scott Pruitt, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, broke with the President-elect Wednesday and said he doesn’t believe climate change is a “hoax.”

But in testimony before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Pruitt didn’t indicate he would take swift action to address environmental issues that may contribute to climate change. Instead, the Oklahoma attorney general said there is still debate over how to respond.

“Science tells us the climate is changing and human activity in some matter impacts that change,” Pruitt said. “The ability to measure and pursue the degree and the extent of that impact and what to do about it are subject to continuing debate and dialogue.”

That stance puts Pruitt in line with the climate change views of several other Trump Cabinet picks, including Rex Tillerson and Ryan Zinke, who have acknowledged the issue but haven’t committed to an aggressive response.

Trump once called climate change a “hoax” invented by the Chinese and, during his campaign for president, repeatedly questioned scientific conclusions that human activity has caused global warming. More recently, he has acknowledged “some connectivity” between human activity and climate change.

Pruitt, who has long viewed the EPA skeptically and has sued the agency repeatedly as Oklahoma attorney general, is a lightning rod of a pick. As the hearing got underway, protesters criticizing Pruitt for his ties to the oil industry outside the room were clearly audible. A handful of protesters were escorted out of the hearing.

Pruitt said the EPA serves a critical mission and detailed how the agency under his leadership would take a dramatically different approach than under President Barack Obama. He accused the agency under Obama of flouting congressional rules and ignoring the desires of states.

Pruitt said “rule of law matters” and that as EPA director he would “follow the law” and regulations set out by Congress, a suggestion that the current leadership has not done that.

Views on climate change

It is likely that Pruitt, despite views that are abhorrent to many Democrats, will be confirmed as the next head of the EPA. But Democrats want to make him pay for it and plan to push the Republican on some of his past comments about climate and his ties to energy companies.

Trump nominees say climate change is no hoax, but still invite skepticism

Pruitt wrote last year that climate change scientists “continue to disagree” about whether climate change is real, despite the fact that 97% or more of climate scientists believe climate change is real and linked to human activity.

And lawyers with the Environmental Defense Fund tell CNN that Pruitt filed at least 12 lawsuits challenging environmental protections as attorney general. Pruitt, in particular, sued over the EPA’s clean power plan, which seeks to curb carbon emissions from power plants and attempts to curb methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.

Bernie Sanders, the liberal Vermont senator who railed against the fossil fuel industry during his 2016 presidential campaign, hammered Pruitt for questioning the impact humans have on climate change.

Pruitt said his personal views on climate change are “immaterial” to whether he should lead the EPA, arguing that his prospective job is about following Congress’ guidance, not his own personal beliefs.

“Really?” Sanders asked incredulously. “You are going to be the head of the agency to protect the environment and your personal feelings about whether climate change is caused by human activity and carbon emission is immaterial?”

Pruitt stood by the statement, telling Sanders that his job as administrator would be to “carry out statutes passed by this body.”

Probed for ties to energy companies

He sought to beat back concerns about his ties to the energy industry by arguing it is wrong to say someone who is pro-energy is inherently anti-environment.

“First, we must reject the false paradigm that if you are pro-energy, you are anti-environment and if you are pro-environment, you are anti-energy,” he said. “I utterly reject the narrative.”

Trump’s EPA pick took hands-off approach to environmental crisis that shook Oklahoma

But environmental activists call Pruitt dangerous and Democrats on the committee will look to put his views of science and climate change on trial.

Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the committee, has labeled the Oklahoma Republican “Polluting Pruitt” since his nomination was announced and argued that an EPA head that does not “recognize the damaging effects of climate change on our environment and economy” is not qualified for the job.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, hammered Pruitt for his ties to a number of oil companies through his campaigns for attorney general, his super PACs and the Republican Attorneys General Association.

Whitehouse called some of his ties “a complete black hole” of money, alleging that Pruitt could be conflicted when dealing with some energy companies due to his fundraising.

Pruitt denied soliciting money from Koch Industries and others for the Rule of Law Defense Fund and noted that, as attorney general, he also sued energy companies.

According to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, Pruitt has received more than $300,000 from interests close to the fossil fuel industry since 2002.

Many Senate Republicans, however, see Pruitt as the right person to lead what they view as a wasteful agency that over-regulates, especially because Oklahoma is the biggest oil and natural gas-producing state in the nation.

Pledging action

Pruitt said he believes mistakes were made in the handling of lead poisoning in Flint, Michigan, blaming the Obama administration’s EPA for not moving faster.

“As you know, the Clean Water Act and The Safe Drinking Water Act, if there is an emergency situation, the EPA can enter an emergency order to address those kind of concerns,” Pruitt said. “I think there should have been a more fast response, a more rapid response to Flint, Michigan.”

Pruitt’s main argument during the start of his hearing has been that the states should have more power within the EPA, but on this issue, he argued that the federal government agency should have had more power to respond.

Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, pressed Pruitt on his lawsuits against the EPA, charging the body with overreach in state matters.

Pruitt said on issues of air quality and water quality and inter-state issues, the EPA is particularly necessary.

Join the Resistance to Trump’s Attack on Our Environment and Civil Rights

Posted on December 20, 2016 by Exposing the Big Game

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/earth2trump/index.html
The Earth2Trump Roadshow is coming to a town near you in January.

The roadshow is rallying and empowering defenders of civil rights and the environment to resist Trump’s dangerous agenda. Stopping in 16 cities on its way to Washington, D.C., it will bring thousands of people to protest at the presidential inauguration.

Click on the map below to RSVP for an event near you. Invite your friends, family and activist networks. Forward this webpage widely on Facebook, Twitter and email.

Beginning in Oakland and Seattle on Jan. 2, the Earth2Trump Roadshow will tour the country bringing speakers, musicians, outrage, fun and hope to 16 cities as it progresses toward the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.

The shows will feature national and local speakers, great musicians, and an opportunity to join a growing movement of resistance to all forms of oppression and all attacks on our environment. We must stand and oppose every Trump policy that hurts wildlife; poisons our air and water; destroys our climate; promotes racism, misogyny or homophobia; and marginalizes entire segments of our society.

At each show, you can:

Sign the national Pledge of Resistance to Trump’s dangerous agenda.
Write a personalized #Earth2Trump message that will be carried to D.C. inside a massive three-dimensional globe and delivered to Trump.
Create a huge, viral social media #Earth2Trump messaging campaign.
Connect with people in your community resisting oppression and find out how to join the million people who will protest in Washington, D.C., on Inauguration Day.

Join us in your community to send a powerful, unwavering #Earth2Trump message that oppression and environmental destruction must not be tolerated.

Click on locations in the map below to RSVP so we know you’re coming and then share this page with your family, friends and social networks.

You can also RSVP by clicking on your city here: Seattle, Portland, Reno, Salt Lake City, Denver, Omaha, Chicago, Washington D.C., Oakland, Los Angeles, Tucson, Silver City, Houston, St. Petersburg, Norfolk, St. Augustine

Hunt with the Trumps for $1million

Posted on December 18, 2016 by Exposing the Big Game

: President-elect is throwing a fundraiser the day after inauguration where donors can win the chance to go shooting with Donald’s sons

The $1million package offers a photo with Trump and a hunting trip with his sons, Donald Jr and Eric
The cheapest package for fundraiser in Washington is valued at $25,000
Toby Keith, Alabama and ‘other surprise entertainers’ will be performing
The appropriate attire is described as ‘camouflage and cufflinks’

By Cheyenne Roundtree For Mailonline

16 December 2016

Donald Trump’s sons are looking to start the President-elect’s first full day in office with a bang.

Following his inauguration, wealthy donors have the chance to go on a shooting excursion with Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump in a fundraiser, entitled ‘Opening Day’, honoring their father.

For $1million, the top package offers a photo opportunity with President Trump for up to 16 people and a multi-day hunting or fishing trip with one or both of the Trump sons.

Donald Trump Jr (left) and Eric Trump (right) are the stars of Opening Day, a fundraiser held in their father’s honor. For a modest sum of $1million, the top package offers a multi-day hunting or fishing trip with one of both of the Trump sons

For $1million, the Bald Eagle package at the fundraiser offers the chance for 16 people to take a photo with President Donald Trump

Along with the event full of rich donors, Toby Keith, Alabama and other ‘surprise entertainers’ will be performing at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington DC on Saturday, January 21.

Opening Day is described as a chance to ‘play a significant role’ as the Trump family honors the billionaire’s inauguration by celebrating ‘the great American tradition of outdoor sporting, shooting, fishing and conservation.’

The attire for the fundraiser is described as ‘camouflage and cufflinks… jeans, boots and hats are welcome’ and all proceeds will go to conservation charities.

This isn’t the first time Donald Jr and Eric have shown their fondness for hunting, both domestically and internationally.

In the past the two sons have come under fire for big-game hunting and posing with their kills, including Donald Jr smiling next a dead buffalo and in another holding up a tail of an elephant.

Eric is pictured sitting on top of a water buffalo, with his hat hanging off its horn and three rifles propped up against the animal’s body.

The two also have a photo that sparked outrage on social media where they proudly hold up a dead cheetah.

In the past the two sons have come under fire for big-game hunting and posing with their kills. Trump has said that his ‘sons love to hunt’

Donald Jr is seen here with a 40′ Cape Buffalo Bull and is said to have ‘the precision of a true marksman’

Eric Trump sits on top of a water buffalo in Zimbabwe, with three rifles and a hat propped up against the dead animal

Trump turned to his children to boost support for his campaign and many political analysts think they aided to his win.

Daughter Ivanka Trump played a large role in his campaign and was seen at her father’s side at conventions, rallies and debates.

The 35-year-old is now the star of her own fundraiser, where a lucky bidder can have a 45 minute coffee break with the mother-of-three.

The sit-down is estimated at $50,000 and once the bidder forks over the money to Eric Trump’s foundation and vetted by a background check, the two can chat about politics and life.

What Trump’s Triumph Means for Wildlife

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Exposing the Big Game

http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/11/11/what-trumps-triumph-means-wildlife

Get ready for more drilling, mining, and logging on public lands and an agenda that values preserving wildlife—for hunters.

A 1,400-pound male coastal brown bear fishes while a one-year-old gray wolf waits for scraps in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. (Photo: Christopher Dodds/Barcroft Media/Getty Images)

NOV 11, 2016·

Richard Conniff is the author of House of Lost Worlds: Dinosaurs, Dynasties, and the Story of Life on Earth and other books.

For people who worry about the nation’s (and the world’s) rapidly dwindling wildlife, the only vaguely good news about Donald Trump’s election might just be that he doesn’t care. This is a guy whose ideas about nature stop at “water hazard” and “sand trap.” Look up his public statements about animals and wildlife on votesmart.com, and the answer that bounces back is “no matching public statements found.” It’s not one of those things he has promised to ban, deport, dismantle, or just plain “schlong.”

More good news (and you may sense that I am stretching here): Trump is not likely to appoint renegade rancher and grazing-fee deadbeat Cliven Bundy to head the Bureau of Land Management. When Field and Stream magazineasked Trump early this year if he endorsed the Western movement to transfer federal lands to state control (a plank in the Republican platform), he replied: “I don’t like the idea because I want to keep the lands great, and you don’t know what the state is going to do. I mean, are they going to sell if they get into a little bit of trouble? And I don’t think it’s something that should be sold.”

This was no doubt the real estate developer in him talking, but his gut instinct against letting go of land will surely outweigh the party platform. “We have to be great stewards of this land,” Trump added. “This is magnificent land.” Asked if he would continue the long downward trend in budgets for managing public lands, Trump said he’d heard from friends and family that public lands “are not maintained the way they were by any stretch of the imagination. And we’re going to get that changed; we’re going to reverse that.”

This was apparently enough, in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s upset election, for Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife, to suggest that “we share common interests in the protection of America’s wildlife and our great systems of public lands, which provide endless opportunities for outdoor recreation, wildlife observation, and other pursuits that all Americans value.”

Meanwhile, pretty much all others active on wildlife issues were looking as if the floor had just dropped out from under them, plunging them into a pool of frenzied, ravenous Republicans. At the website for the Humane Society, where a pre-election posting warned that a Trump presidency would pose “an immense and critical threat to animals,” an apologetic notice said, “The action alert you are attempting to access is no longer active.”

They have reason to be nervous. Trump has surrounded himself with political professionals who do not think sweet thoughts about wildlife. Newt Gingrich, for instance, loves animals—but mainly in zoos rather than in inconvenient places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Reince Priebus, a likely choice for chief of staff, was part of a Tea Party revolution in Wisconsin that put Gov. Scott Walker in power. Just to give you a sense of what that could mean for a Trump administration, Walker handed over control of state parks and other lands to the hook-and-bullet set while shutting out biologists and conservationists. Chris Christie? Rudy Giuliani? Let’s just not talk about them.

Trump’s main advisers on wildlife appear to be his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, and they seem to care only about hunting and fishing. Donald Jr. has publicly expressed a wish to run the Department of the Interior, though his only known qualification for the job is his family name. More likely, as he told Outdoor Life during the campaign, he will help vet the nominees for Interior, “and I will be there to make sure the people who run the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and so on know how much sportsmen do for wildlife and conservation and that, for the sake of us all, they value the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.”

You may be stumbling over that Christ-like phrase “for the sake of us all.” But you should really be worrying about the “North American Model.” It’s a code phrase for managing public lands primarily for hunting and fishing and only secondarily, if at all, for nongame species—or for hiking, bird-watching, camping, or other uses. In practice it can mean eradicating wolves because hunters consider them competition for elk or moose. (Donald Jr.: “We need to reduce wolves and rebuild those herds.”) It can mean cutting back funding for songbird habitat and spending it instead on fish stocking.

Like his father, Donald Jr. has opposed selling public lands, mostly because it “may cost sportsmen and women access to the lands.” But he believes states should help govern federal lands, calling shared governance “especially critical when we pursue our idea of energy independence in America. As has been proven in several of our Western States, energy exploration can be done without adverse affects [sic] on wildlife, fisheries or grazing.” (America has come tantalizingly close to energy independence under President Obama—without moving new drilling rigs onto public lands—and there is no evidence for the broad-brush notion that energy exploration is harmless to wildlife.)

Two other major considerations to keep in mind: If Trump goes ahead with his favorite plan to build a wall on the Mexican border, it would cut off vital migratory routes and habitat for jaguars, ocelots, desert bighorn sheep, black bears, and many other species. (It might also impede the flow of fed-up Mexicans heading south.)

Likewise, trashing the Paris Agreement on climate change, as Trump has promised to do, would gain the United States nothing and risk committing the planet irrevocably to warmer temperatures, extreme weather events, and massively destructive coastal flooding. That doesn’t make sense even from a business perspective, and much less so for wildlife. The first documented extinction of a species by human-caused climate change occurred this year, when the Bramble Cay melomys succumbed to rising sea levels in its South Pacific island home. Thousands of other species also face disruption of their habitat and the likelihood of imminent extinction.

The bottom line is that a Trump administration is likely to be good for mining, drilling, logging, and the hook-and-bullet set. But for wildlife and for Americans at large? We are facing four dangerous years of self-serving gut instinct and reckless indifference to science, with the damage to be measured, as climate activist Bill McKibben put it the other day, “in geologic time.”

If you are feeling as if a Trump victory is the end of the world as we know it, you may just be right.

Trump Meets With Al Gore on Climate Change

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Exposing the Big Game

By JOHN SCHWARTZ, JENNIFER STEINHAUER, ERIC LIPTON and RON NIXONUPDATED 12:41 PM

President-elect Donald J. Trump and his daughter Ivanka met with former Vice President Al Gore on Monday to discuss human-caused climate change.

A meeting on climate change.

Continue reading the main story

Al Gore, the former vice president, arrived at Trump Tower in Manhattan on Monday.CreditHilary Swift for The New York Times

Al Gore thought he would be bending the ear of the adviser Mr. Trump trusts most, his daughter Ivanka.

Instead, the man bearing “T he Inconvenient Truth” went straight to the source: the president-elect himself.

“I had a lengthy and very productive session with the president-elect,” Mr. Gore, the former vice president, told reporters at Trump Tower. “It was a sincere search for areas of common ground. I had a meeting beforehand with Ivanka Trump. The bulk of the time was with the president-elect, Donald Trump. I found it an extremely interesting conversation, and to be continued.”

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/us/politics/donald-trump-transition.html?_r=0

Donald Trump Jr. visits Turkey in hunting trip, kills goats

Posted on November 30, 2016 by Exposing the Big Game

http://www.dailysabah.com/nation/2016/11/30/donald-trump-jr-visits-turkey-in-hunting-trip-kills-goats

While his father is engaged in headhunting for his cabinet, Donald Trump Jr. tackled some real trophies in a surprise and secretive hunting trip in Turkey.

The 38-year-old Donald John Trump Jr., son of real estate tycoon turned president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, was in the southern Turkish resort of Antalya to hunt wild goats, the Doğan News Agency reported.

The younger Trump hunted two goats in the Oluklu plateau of Antalya on Sunday. Trump Jr. arrived in Antalya with five bodyguards after securing a hunting permit from Turkish authorities.

He spent two nights camped out in the mountainous area before leaving on Tuesday back to Germany, where he was staying before the trip.

Donald Trump Jr. is known for his penchant for hunting, drawing the criticism of animal rights activists in the past, especially for his involvement in big-game hunting.

In 2012, younger Trump was slammed by critics when photos showing him with a knife in one hand and holding the tail of a dead elephant surfaced online.

In another photo dating back to 2012, Donald Trump Jr. was seen with his brother Eric beside a dead crocodile hanging from a noose off a tree.

A photo of the duo holding a dead leopard added to the furor of activists although Donald Trump Jr. has never been shy of his enthusiasm for hunting.

In an interview with a website on hunting, he has said he learned hunting from his maternal grandfather in Czechoslovakia and preferred bow hunting.

Previous reports by Turkish media outlets stated that it was Eric Trump who visited Turkey for ann hunting trip, and killed two wild deers.

911

Posted on November 27, 2016 by Exposing the Big Game

by Stephen Capra

Hello, this is emergency operator, what is your emergency?
Um, we have a real emergency, a crisis really.
(Operator) Sir what is the emergency?
It’s our President, well not my President really, but a man… well a boy really….no more like a child, a spoiled one at that… Um, operator, this man is now the most powerful man in the world, yet he seemingly does not read, I have no evidence he can write, but he clearly can tweet. It’s not just me, but our country; well the majority who voted against him are simply terrified.
(Operator) This really is a crisis; we are sending in our special agent, he is an older white guy, balding, sometimes a bird can be found perched near him.
Please hurry!

As I write this, the full weight and gravity of this election is sinking (and I use that term literally) into my bones. We have chosen a fool, a reckless child to be our country’s President. There will be many areas by which this man and his new found friends, the Republican Party, will begin to hash out their form of torture.

Like kids that were bullied in school, these adults will seek to “make us pay” for their misguided vision of America. Nowhere is this clearer than in the realm of the environment.

Dark Vision

Republicans like Bob Bishop and our own Steve Pearce are already buzzing about the idea of eliminating National Monuments. Pearce sees this as a means of payback for our successful campaigns to protect close to one million acres in this state, with the crown jewel being the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks. But the reality is their dark vision for conservation has no bounds: from the possibility of trying to tamper with restrictions on ivory imports, to easing restrictions on trophy hunting imports (a Trump family favorite), to the Republican agenda of selling off public lands, destroying wolf recovery, eliminating the Antiquities Act, making sure the EPA is gutted, putting gun ranges on public lands, eliminating critical Climate Change research, opening up federal lands for oil, gas, uranium, coal and cows at an unprecedented rate, to destroying America’s Serengeti: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

We have heard the threats in the past and when I mention this to people most tell me, “It’s not going to happen. Presidents do not change our country.” Yet, statistics do not lie. Recent studies have shown going back the past hundred years or so that Presidents generally get 70% of what they run on accomplished, and that stat held true for President Obama.

What’s different here is that Trump likely has no strong positions on the environment. We have heard dismiss climate change, but how much would Trump know or care about the BLM or Wildlife Services? But he will need Republicans to push through the most controversial aspects of his Administration: the Wall, Muslim registrations, whatever War he is likely to create; the list is long and his appointments to date make clear he is vetting some extreme (some say unqualified) people, to make up his cabinet.

The picks for Interior, Energy and Agriculture will likely be damning and disastrous for the environment. In this case the President elect has been clear: “drill baby drill,” “remove regulation,” and “I love coal.” But even without his ill-informed comments, the Republican Party that spurned him will control these moves, with a zeal we have not seen since their heady Jim Watt days.

That is, if we and the Democratic Party yield to such insanity by saying ridiculous things like: “Let’s give him a chance” or “The election is over and it’s his chance to govern.” The correct answer to any of that is, BULLSHIT!

The environment is not a personal punching bag for Republicans to do with as their money lined pockets wish. Nor is the right of Democrats to simply allow such destruction. If your representative is a democrat and is saying “I am going to give the President a chance” go to his or her office and remind them the environment is no longer in a position for second chances. Demand they filibuster any appointments for these vital environmental cabinet positions.

This man lost the majority in this nation, by more than 2 million votes. He has an old school, oligarchic mentality about nature. He sees in through the lens, not of wildness, but as a means of self-enrichment. Oil, coal, steel, minerals like gold, which festoon his apartment and properties are the gilded mantra of his 19^th century mentality of conquest and entitlement.

He must be stopped: our planet depends on him being defeated, wildlife depends on him being defeated, and our place in the world and the respect our nation has garnered depends on him being defeated. But from the ashes of this battle, what must be clear is that the Republican Party and its positions on the environment must not just be defeated, but forever destroyed. They and their leaders Paul Ryan, Bob Bishop and the Steve Pearces of the world must lose their power to destroy beauty, to kill the heartbeat of wildness and to do so with the smug arrogance of a serial killer.

The weeks and months ahead are crucial; battle lines have already formed on the cold plains of North Dakota with our Standing Rock Sioux brethren holding ground against all odds. But the battlegrounds and the fight will need to go town to town, city to city and must assault the halls of Congress with the message that we will never go back, as we have said with slavery, as we have said with women’s rights and gay rights; we will not go backwards, but instead we will only move forward. So too is it with our environment, so too is it with wolves and bears and sea life.

The path is only forward, we are already in triage, we must tell this newly elected President NO: NO to Coal, NO to your appointments, NO to your Presidency!

In so doing we can make clear, despite their likely angry rhetoric, that we will never surrender. That our love for Mother Earth is far stronger than their greed and ignorance and that love for all species is far stronger than their hate of all that is wild.

We will overcome this moment in time, but we all, every one of us be prepared to fight like never before. We must stop their dark vision for our lands, water and wildlife, to do so will require more than a call to 911: it will require all of us, working together.

Trump win threatens Porcupine caribou herd, says Yukon MP

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Exposing the Big Game

‘The Republicans have always wanted to have drilling’ in calving grounds, Larry Bagnell says

CBC News <http://www.cbc.ca/news/cbc-news-online-news-staff-list-1.1294364> Posted: Nov 10, 2016 1:42 PM CT Last Updated: Nov 10, 2016 1:52 PM CT

The Porcupine herd is one of the largest migratory barren ground caribou herds in North America. Its range stretches from Alaska to Yukon. <http://i.cbc.ca/1.3320779.1447685936%21/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/porcupine-caribou.jpg>

The Porcupine herd is one of the largest migratory barren ground caribou herds in North America. Its range stretches from Alaska to Yukon. (Meagan Deuling/CBC)

Yukon MP Larry Bagnell believes Donald Trump’s victory does not bode well for one of the last thriving caribou herds in the North — the Porcupine caribou.

Bagnell says Trump’s winning the U.S. presidency, along with Republican victories in the Senate and Congress, will make protecting the herd’s calving grounds in Alaska from oil drilling “difficult.”

“The Republicans have always wanted to have drilling there, which would upset the life cycle of the herd,” Bagnell said.

The Porcupine herd is one of the largest migratory barren ground caribou herds in North America. Its range stretches from Alaska’s North Slope into northern Yukon. The size of the herd fluctuates but the last population estimate, from 2013, put the herd at about 197,000 animals.

Larry Bagnell <http://i.cbc.ca/1.3844691.1478742946%21/fileImage/httpImage/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/original_300/larry-bagnell.JPG>

Yukon MP Larry Bagnell says the new U.S. administration is going to make efforts to protect the Porcupine herd ‘difficult.’ (Cheryl Kawaja/CBC)

Many Indigenous people in Alaska and Yukon rely on the herd for food, and have lobbied for decades to ensure the herd’s calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) are protected from development. The area is rich in untapped oil.

President George W. Bush pushed to open the area to development, and Alaskan senator Lisa Murkowski introduced a bill last year that would have permitted oil production in the refuge.

President Barack Obama, however, sought to expand the protected area <http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/barack-obama-to-seek-protecting-alaska-arctic-refuge-from-drilling-1.2931246> .

Bagnell says now that Republicans will control the agenda in Washington, “it’s going to make that more challenging.”

A Trump Administration and animal protection

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Exposing the Big Game

http://blog.humanesociety.org/wayne/2016/11/trump-administration-animal-protection.html

By Wayne Pacelle on November 10, 2016

In the United States, we fight like cats and dogs during elections. But in their aftermath, we’re not nearly as forgiving as creatures who get into a scrape and then put the tussle behind them.

The nation has just gone through a tough battle, with half the country supporting one candidate and half backing the other.

Donald Trump is our president-elect. We congratulate him. To play politics at this level and to succeed requires real ability, and skill. I’ve long admired the prior winners – the Bushes, father and son, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama – and we admire Trump for amassing the votes needed for victory. He’s the second recent president to win in the electoral college but to lose the popular vote – an especially important reminder of responsibilities associated with governing in a divided nation.

When the nation is split as it is, a very capable political leader will gravitate to the issues that bind us together. There is no shortage of these issues, and animal protection is certainly one of them. That was on display this week, as voters overwhelmingly approved animal protection ballot measures to protect farm animals from extreme confinement in Massachusetts (passing Question 3 with 78 percent of the vote), and wildlife from poachers and traffickers (passing Measure 100 in Oregon with 70 percent of the vote). At the same time, they rejected an overreaching attempt to deregulate agriculture in Oklahoma (defeating Question 777 with more than 60 percent of the vote).

As those votes reinforce yet again, we have a mainstream agenda at The HSUS. And any good person – Democrat, Republican, or Independent – should support an agenda grounded on opposition to animal cruelty. Both Clinton and Trump voters lined up with us in these states on these issues. We invite President-elect Trump to embrace the core of our agenda because it’s good for the country. It also happens to unite so many of us, including our members and volunteer leaders who are devoted Republicans and conservatives. As a businessman, we hope Mr. Trump will embrace the principles of the humane economy – recognizing that an embrace of animal protection is good for business.

The table is set for him in Congress:

The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act has a majority of the House as cosponsors. The Senate bill – led by Pat Toomey, R-Penn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., both re-elected on Tuesday – has broad bipartisan support in Congress and has been endorsed by more than 200 law enforcement agencies across the country. It should be first on the list for action.
The Prevent All Soring Tactics Act has even more congressional support. It has more than 300 House and Senate cosponsors, and the practice of injuring horses’ feet to exaggerate their performance in competitions is disgraceful. Every legitimate horse industry organization and the equine veterinary community favors the bill.
The Humane Cosmetics Act not only has strong bipartisan support, but it has dozens of major corporations behind it. Here again, animal welfare groups and businesses are aligned.
The Pet and Women’s Safety Act is about stopping domestic violence to animals, children, and women. It provides federal help to equip women’s shelters with animal care facilities, so the women can get out of a dangerous relationship and take their animals with them. So many victims of domestic violence fear leaving their pets behind because they know the abuser will torment or kill the animal as an act of vengeance.
The Thoroughbred Horseracing Integrity Act not only has The HSUS behind it, but also The Jockey Club, which consists of so many major horse owners, track owners, and other prominent leaders within the industry.

I must confess that we are alarmed by candidate Trump’s declared intentions to do away with Obama-era regulations. When it comes to regulations to stop cruelty, these are not onerous regulations for business. These are good for business and for the country, reflecting our values that cruelty to animals is never acceptable, as a personal matter or as a matter of business. Strip away the regulations, and you strip away our values.

It would be unthinkable to roll back important rules:

USDA banned the use of downer cows in the food supply. Animals unable to walk have been dragged into slaughter plants or pushed with bulldozers. It’s unsafe for the animals, for the workers, and for consumers who eat meat from sick animals dragged in manure and waste.
The Obama Administration banned the trade in ivory. Some of the poachers who kill elephants finance terrorist activities by selling ivory. These people are no friends to elephants or to the countries where the elephants live. They are no friends to the United States, either.
The National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopted rules to stop aerial scouting and shooting of wolves and grizzly bears, trapping of grizzlies, and other inhumane and appalling hunting practices on federal lands. These lands were set aside to protect the animals, and Alaska generates hundreds of millions of dollars in tourist revenue because people come to these lands to view these animals in their native habitats.

A Trump Administration can also help advance important animal protection goals, with a proactive agenda, by:

Enacting a regulation to fortify humane standards of care for dogs in commercial breeding operations. Puppy mills are notorious for mistreating dogs, and Americans will continue to turn away from dog breeders as long as the standards allow dogs to be kept in small wire cages for their entire lives.
Expanding the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act to include poultry. Americans don’t realize that there are no federal protections at slaughterhouses for 95 percent of animals whose carcasses are certified by USDA for consumption. Our federal humane slaughter laws exclude poultry.
Reforming check-off programs that tax family farmers and amount to a political slush fund for commodity trade associations.

We welcome the opportunity to sit down with the president-elect and to elaborate on our agenda. And it’s our earnest hope he appoints to key positions within his administration people who represent the values of the nation. To select people from special interest groups who oppose mainstream animal welfare reforms and who would treat their appointment as an opportunity to serve narrow constituencies and do harm to animals, will get him off on the wrong foot on this set of issues. It will contradict a winning message of change that so many millions of voters embraced.

Rubber bullets and fear: Trump protesters flood streets anew

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Exposing the Big Game

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — From New York to Illinois to California, in red states as well as blue, protesters decrying Donald Trump’s election spent another night overtaking highways, smashing store windows, igniting fires and in at least one city, facing pepper spray and rubber projectiles from police trying to clear the streets.

The demonstrations stretched into a third straight night Thursday and came to a head in Portland, Oregon, where thousands marched and chanted, “We reject the president-elect!” while some lit firecrackers and sparked a dumpster blaze.

Officers began physically pushing back against the crowd that at times threw objects at them, making 26 arrests and using flash-bang devices and types of smoke or tear gas to force people to disperse.

Trump himself fired back, tweeting: “Just had a very open and successful presidential election. Now professional protesters, incited by the media, are protesting. Very unfair!”

In Portland, police termed the protest a riot after some 4,000 protesters surged into the downtown area. After giving several orders to leave, officers fired what appeared to be rubber projectiles. It was not immediately clear if anyone was hit.

The number of protesters dwindled by early Friday, and police ordered those still in the streets to disperse immediately or be “subject to arrest and the use of riot-control agents.”

In Denver, protesters briefly shut down a freeway near downtown. Police said demonstrators made their way onto Interstate 25, stopping traffic for about a half-hour.

Protesters also briefly shut down highways in Minneapolis and Los Angeles.

In downtown San Francisco, high school students called out “not my president” as they marched, holding signs urging a Trump eviction. They waved rainbow banners and Mexican flags, as bystanders in the heavily Democratic city gave them high-fives from the sidelines.

“As a white, queer person, we need unity with people of color, we need to stand up,” said Claire Bye, a 15-year-old sophomore at Academy High School. “I’m fighting for my rights as an LGBTQ person. I’m fighting for the rights of brown people, black people, Muslim people.”

In New York City and Chicago, large groups gathered outside Trump Tower. In New York, they chanted angry slogans and waved banners bearing anti-Trump messages. Police still stood guard Friday on Fifth Avenue.

“You got everything straight up and down the line,” demonstrator David Thomas said. “You got climate change, you got the Iran deal. You got gay rights, you got mass deportations. Just everything, straight up and down the line, the guy is wrong on every issue.”

In Philadelphia, protesters near City Hall held signs bearing slogans: “Not Our President,” ”Trans Against Trump” and “Make America Safe For All.” Officers on bikes blocked traffic for the march that spanned four lanes of street traffic and even drew parents with children in strollers.

Jeanine Feito, 23, held a sign that read “not 1 more deportation.” The Temple University student said she acknowledges Trump as president-elect but doesn’t accept it.

“I’m Cuban-American. My parents are immigrants, and I’m also a woman. These are things Trump doesn’t stand for,” Feito said. “He’s bullied us, discriminated against us, is racist and encourages violence. I think it’s important we stand together and fight against this.”

About 500 people turned out at a protest in Louisville, Kentucky, while hundreds in Baltimore marched to the stadium where the Ravens were playing a football game.

A group got into some shoving matches with police in Oakland, California, but Los Angeles saw mostly peaceful protests. City News Service reported that dozens of protesters in the nation’s second-largest city were arrested around midnight when they refused to budge.

As expected, the demonstrations led to social media blowback from Trump supporters accusing protesters of sour grapes or worse, though there were no significant counterprotests. They said the demonstrators were not respecting the democratic process.

___

Jablon reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Deepti Hajela in New York, Janie Har in San Francisco and Lisa Baumann in Seattle contributed to this report.

A protesters unhappy with the presidential election blocks traffic on JFK Blvd. as they march between cars on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, in Philadelphia. © Charles Fox/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP A protesters unhappy with the presidential election blocks traffic on JFK Blvd. as they march between cars on Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, in Philadelphia.

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