December 13, 2016
Washington, D.C. – In response the President-Elect’s nomination of Rex Tillerson to be Secretary of State, Greenpeace Executive Director Annie Leonard said:
“Appointing Rex Tillerson to be our chief diplomat is an affront to global progress and will place the US economy, our security, and our standing in the world in the same failing predicament Exxon is in right now. The global community continues to send a strong, collective message that it is ditching fossil fuels for clean energy. Rex Tillerson hid climate science so he could cash in on disaster, instead of transitioning his company to a position of true leadership. This appointment is a desperate grab for power by a failing industry that is perfectly fine bringing the American people down with it.
“Tillerson is beloved by Russian oligarchs and oil magnates. He has used legal action to harass civil society daring enough to attempt to protect itself from existential harm. He has led his company and his industry to double down on an energy source that is literally poisoning the world and making it harder for humans to survive on it. At this moment in time, choosing a man who knows the world through the single frame of the oil and gas industry may actually be more dangerous than picking somebody with no understanding of the world at all.”
Contact: Cassady Craighill, [email protected], 828-817-3328
Jason Schwartz, [email protected], 347-452-3752
