A Key West businessman, environmental marketing consultant and Nobel Prize nominee made nationwide political headlines final week when president-elect Donald Trump tapped him for a task within the incoming administration.
Ed Russo will chair Trump’s environmental advisory activity drive, Trump introduced on social media on Jan. 10.
“I’m happy to announce that Ed Russo, an Environmental Skilled, will lead our Environmental Advisory Job Power, which is able to advise my Administration on initiatives to create nice jobs and shield our pure sources, by following my coverage of CLEAN AIR and CLEAN WATER. Collectively, we’ll obtain American Vitality DOMINANCE, rebuild our Economic system, and DRILL, BABY, DRILL.”
Russo beforehand labored for Trump’s companies as an environmental marketing consultant for his golf programs. Among the nationwide information tales about Russo’s appointment talked about the 2016 guide he wrote, and its flattering title: “Donald J. Trump: An Environmental Hero.“
“That guide was merely a chronicle of achievements,” Russo advised the Keys Weekly. “I didn’t attempt to spin something, My level was that if he, Trump, did all this stuff, then he ought to get credit score, and anybody who didn’t do any of these issues can’t criticize.”
“I’ll report back to the incoming administration and to Trump immediately,” Russo advised the Keys Weekly on Jan. 13. “He has some particular duties for me to work on, like water useful resource administration wants and particular land-use planning in California, clearly. I’ll additionally be capable to put collectively groups to deal with the president’s clear air and clear water priorities,” together with consuming water and the marine surroundings.

Russo is aware of a factor or two about clear consuming water. He and his enterprise accomplice, Yehuda Kaploun, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Miami, have been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for utilizing atmospheric water expertise to create clear, wholesome consuming water from the air.
Their firm, RussKap, manufactures machines that take away moisture from the air and convert it to consuming water “on the level of want,” Kaploun advised the Keys Weekly in June 2024, reasonably than having to move it lengthy distances by means of a pipeline.
The RussKap machines can produce 200 gallons of water a day and are being utilized in 45 international locations for catastrophe reduction, humanitarian and army operations, typically the place consuming water is contaminated as a result of air pollution, pure disasters or restricted pure sources.
“Clear water is the worldwide language of peace,” Kaploun stated final 12 months. “Water will not be political; it’s private and it’s probably the most fundamental requirement for human life. I’ve no respect for individuals who wish to politicize a humanitarian water disaster, however should not keen to repair it.”
Russo’s new place doesn’t require Senate affirmation, so he doesn’t have to divest himself of his companies, and he plans to stay on the boards of Reef Aid and the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition.
“However I did must resign from the Key West Planning Board, which I remorse, as a result of I actually loved that,” Russo stated.
Russo stated final week that he additionally desires to develop an vitality plan — one which considers greater than “drill, child, drill.”
“One type of vitality can’t do all of it,” he stated. “However rising expertise is leading to new strategies and strategies of manufacturing and managing vitality. So we’ll put collectively a plan to know the sorts of vitality we wish to use over the subsequent 30, 50, 80 years.”
He complimented Trump’s dedication to “sensible, cheap approaches” to water high quality, and emphasised his dedication to serving to the Florida Keys from the federal stage.
Russo has an workplace and an residence in Washington, D.C., although he and his spouse, Jennifer Hulse, a Key West lawyer and enterprise proprietor, are nonetheless determining the logistics of how and the place they’ll spend and cut up their time.