Rice expert available to comment on Trump’s environmental executive order

EXPERT ALERT

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Rice expert available to comment on Trump’s environmental executive order

HOUSTON – (March 28, 2017) – Rice University energy and environment policy expert Charles McConnell is available for news media interviews today to comment on President Donald Trump’s executive order to put a halt on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan (CPP). The CPP was at the center of President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan.

Charles McConnell

McConnell, who is executive director of Rice’s Energy and Environment Initiative and a former assistant secretary of energy at the U.S. Department of Energy in the Obama administration, said Trump’s order is a step in the right direction.

“I’m delighted with this executive order action because it peels back the illusion of a policy fix that was designed to be ineffective in protecting our environment, as well as expensive to the American public,” McConnell said. “My hope is that this will now launch the page-turning effort necessary to put real investment into technology for all forms of energy and not to continue on a path of passing regulations that pick winners and losers. It is time to embrace technology advancement for all forms of energy.”

For more commentary on this issue, read McConnell’s “Energy solution must be an ‘all of the above’ strategy” (2014 The Hill).

To schedule an interview with McConnell, contact David Ruth, director of national media relations at Rice, at david@rice.edu or 713-348-6327.

Rice University has a VideoLink ReadyCam TV interview studio. ReadyCam is capable of transmitting broadcast-quality standard-definition and high-definition video directly to all news media organizations around the world 24/7.

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This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

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