One theme: "Oil & Money"
U.S. Senate panel clears Tillerson’s path to be secretary of state
From an Article by Patricia Zengerle, Reuters News Service, January 23, 2017
U.S. President Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil Corp. Chairman Rex Tillerson, narrowly won approval from a Senate committee on Monday, but is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 11-10 to approve Tillerson, with every Republican backing the former oil executive and every Democrat opposing him.
His approval by the panel, a victory for Trump, had been in doubt until earlier on Monday, when Senator Marco Rubio, a committee member who had been Tillerson’s most vocal Republican critic, said he would back the nominee.
Tillerson’s confirmation by the 100-member Senate, where Republicans hold 52 seats, is not expected before next week. Democrats want more time to debate and the chamber may not be in session all this week.
Rubio’s backing had been in doubt after his tough questioning during Tillerson’s confirmation hearing, focusing on issues including concerns about Tillerson’s support for human rights. Rubio ultimately decided he would approve the nominee in deference to Trump, as well as to fill a critical top job.
Democrats said they voted against Tillerson over fears he might lift sanctions on Russia, where he did business for years, questions about his views on human rights and his refusal to recuse himself from matters related to his former employer during his entire term as the top U.S. diplomat.
Tillerson pledged to recuse himself only for the year required by law.
Amid Democratic anger over allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, Tillerson also raised committee hackles by saying he did not know Exxon Mobil lobbied against sanctions on Russia while he was running the company.
Senator Ben Cardin, the committee’s top Democrat, said Tillerson’s “business orientation” and responses at his hearing “could compromise his ability as secretary of state to forcefully promote the values and ideals that have defined our country and our leading role in the world for more than 200 years.”
The Senate confirmed only two of Trump’s Cabinet nominees on Friday, his Inauguration Day, a relatively low number among recent presidencies.
Democrats have been unable to block any of his choices because they changed Senate rules in 2013 to allow nominees to be confirmed with just a majority, not 60 votes. Instead, they have used Senate rules to slow the confirmation of nominees they say hold extreme views, are unqualified or have not completed ethics disclosures.
See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net
Point Your RSS Reader to FrackCheckWV.net/feed/
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Frig & Frack
(A protest song inspired by sjr1000)
Frig & Frack dance a dance
To see who is astute
They run an oil rag up a pole
To see who will salute
Nobody seems to see it
They just watch TV
Corporate’s just overjoyed!
They can dance for FREE!
They just quash the media
Build gas-guzzling trucks
People purchase in their millions
So Frig & Frack make BUCKS!
Nobody seems to wonder
Why water tastes so funny
Why their kids have cancer
Why… Big Oil’s makin’ MONEY!
Yeah… nobody seems to care a fig
Most people aren’t that hyper
Now Corporate can laugh and jig…
…and we all Pay the Piper!
SoulSurvivor, 1/16/2017
State Department Rewrites Climate Change Page
Is dealing with climate change too inconvenient for the Trump State Department?
The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI), which has been monitoring changes to federal websites ever since Donald Trump took office, noted significant new changes to the State Department’s climate change website.
Climate Central reported that these are the first changes to the Office of Global Change documented by EDGI after former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson took over the State Department on Feb. 1, according to Toly Rinberg, a researcher and coordinator for EDGI’s Website Tracking Team.
The office’s revised page has scrubbed its mention of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to reduce carbon pollution, promote clean energy, protect communities from the impacts of climate change and work with partners to lead international climate change efforts.
Here is the Jan. 2 description of the office:
“The Office of Global Change(OES/EGC) works on a broad range of international climate change issues, under the guidance of the Special Envoy for Climate Change. The United States is taking a leading role by advancing an ever-expanding suite of measures at home and abroad. The President’s Climate Action Plan highlights unprecedented efforts by the United States to reduce carbon pollution, promote clean sources of energy that create jobs, protect communities from the impacts of climate change, and work with partners to lead international climate change efforts. The working partnerships the United States has created or strengthened with other major economies has reinforced the importance of results-driven action both internationally and domestically and are achieving measurable impacts now to help countries reduce their long-term greenhouse gas emissions.”
And here’s what the current page says now:
“The Office of Global Change represents the United States in negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and in many other international forums on climate change, including the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization. The office also leads U.S. government participation in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which assesses scientific and technical information related to climate change. The office is further responsible for coordinating a number of bilateral and regional partnerships on climate change, as well as U.S. foreign assistance related to clean energy, adaptation, and sustainable landscapes.”Under Tillerson’s leadership, Exxon issued several statements that supported the Paris climate agreement. However, Tillerson has not explicitly endorsed the global climate action accord.
Notable changes have been made to the Obama-era Office of Global Change website Republished with permission from EDGI
The rewritten text reflects how the State Department is apparently distancing itself from domestic and international action on climate change, which the White House recently described as a “waste of your money.”
It seems that the new role of the Office of Global Change is to—borrowing a phrase from Tillerson himself—have ” a seat at the table” for international forums on climate change negotiations.
During his confirmation, Tillerson said that it is “important that the U.S. maintain a seat at the table on the conversations around how to address the threats of climate change, which do require a global response.”
On the face of it, Tillerson’s carefully worded comment might sound like he is in support of climate action, but the phrasing is broad enough to allow the U.S. to rewrite the terms of the deal or withdraw from it altogether, which is likely what Trump wants to do.
As Tillerson later said during his hearing, climate science is “not conclusive” and said the reason to maintain a seat at the table was “so we can judge the level of commitment of the other 189 or so countries around the table and again adjust our own course accordingly.”
Various government websites have been purged of climate change information ever since Trump took over. Within minutes of the president’s inauguration, the White House’s webpage removed pretty much all references to climate change and replaced it with “An America First Energy Plan.”
EDGI has noticed changes on other government websites, including text describing two rules regulating the oil and gas industry that was removed from an Interior Department page.
http://www.ecowatch.com/tillerson-rewrite-climate-change-page-2328242116.html?utm_source=EcoWatch+List&utm_campaign=4b726a36d7-MailChimp+Email+Blast&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_49c7d43dc9-4b726a36d7-85337061