Former president Mary Robinson has accused Donald Trump of spreading “lies” about his new administration’s energy policy.
Speaking in Kilburn in London on Wednesday night, Mrs Robinson said an executive order signed by the US president declaring a “national energy emergency,” and his promise to “drill, baby, drill,” were based on “lies amplified by social media”.
Mr Trump’s recent order declaring an energy emergency cited an “inadequate energy supply” in the US and urged further expansion of the oil and gas industry using laws such as the Defence Production Act, which allows the US government to use private assets to pursue national objectives.
“As for ‘drill baby drill’ and that executive order – there is no energy emergency in the US. It’s all lies. The US has produced more crude oil in the last six years than any other country in the world,” said Ms Robinson, a global climate change activist through her work with campaign group, The Elders.
“The US is also the leader on gas. It is exporting. There is no energy emergency. It is lies amplified by social media and we actually have to realise this. We are entering a world where a lot of what is being said is not the case,” she said.
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The former Irish president also criticised Mr Trump’s decisions to sign executive orders targeting employers’ diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programmes, as well as his decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement that set international climate change targets.
“DEI policies are good things. They are good for business. Business leaders are standing up to that. I know we are in a difficult time, but we have to know what are lies,” she said.
Ms Robinson was being interviewed onstage at the Kiln theatre and cinema in Kilburn by the Irish-born digital director of the Daily Mirror, Ann-Marie Tomchak, following a screening of the Mary Robinson documentary, put on by Irish Film and Television UK. Earlier, she was the guest of honour at a pre-screening reception hosted at the Kiln by the Irish Embassy in London.
When asked about the perils of “speaking out”, Ms Robinson (80) said she was not concerned. “I recognise I am in a position to [speak out]. I’m not looking for a job. I don’t have to worry about my future. I can speak and I think The Elders must speak.”
In response to a question from the audience about the current enthusiastic wooing of Mr Trump by politicians from all sides, and whether people could stand up to him, Ms Robinson said the courts had already intervened with many of his executive orders.
“At one level, you have this dystopian, bad picture. [But] at another level you have a resistance to that. I’m not saying this is an easy time. It’s not. But there will always be people who can stand up.”
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