The Natural Resource Defense Council, a major national environmental group, responded to the speech by urging Trump to include climate change-related measures in his infrastructure program.
“While we have fought against this administration’s efforts to gut protections for clean air and water, roll-back efforts to address climate change and lease public lands for oil drilling and mining, infrastructure is an opportunity for everyone in Washington to work together to achieve the investments we all need,” said Stephanie Gidigbi, infrastructure lead for the group.
The group will be leading a lobbying push in the 116th Congress to make infrastructure green again, said Gidigbi.
“We will be pushing lawmakers to pursue policies that would do two things: green it and protect it,” she said. “While many in Congress deny the cold reality of climate change, these twin approaches should be able to achieve broad consensus because they will create jobs here at home, while fixing it for the future.”
The environmentalists want to use infrastructure funding to upgrade bridges, roads, and other infrastructure to take into account the increasing severity of storms and flooding that result from a warming planet. Lawmakers have said those discussions will begin occurring this year as they begin to flesh out a new Highway Bill that is set to expire next year.
