With Government Shuttered, Trump Cabinet Officials Ignore Americans’ Rising Utility Bills On International Trip
WASHINGTON — On an international trip in the midst of a government shutdown, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright and key members of their staff are scheduled to be in Athens, Greece, starting Thursday for a two-day transatlantic energy summit. The event comes days after the Trump administration signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Arab Emirates that would allow the sale of national security-sensitive Nvidia processors used in artificial intelligence. Earlier in the week, Burgum was in Abu Dhabi to attend an oil summit and took a helicopter tour of an offshore oilfield run by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, according to a report in the New York Times.
In response, Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, issued the following statement:
“Americans are rightly concerned about the rising costs of heating and powering their homes and the price of groceries. The Trump administration doesn’t seem to get the message. Doug Burgum, a former tech executive, and Chris Wright, a former fracking executive, have skipped town to do the bidding of Big Tech and Big Oil halfway around the world. While park rangers and other essential workers across the United States work without pay, these cabinet secretaries are negotiating energy and tech deals rather than serving the American people.”
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