President Donald Trump announced from the White House Rose Garden today that he is pulling the United States out of the UN’s Paris Agreement on climate change, but signaled he is open to rejoining for a better deal. There are 147 countries that have ratified the agreement that President Barack Obama signed but never sent to the United States Senate to be ratified.
I am fighting every day for the great people of this country. Therefore, in order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord but begin negotiations to reenter either the Paris accord or an entirely new transaction under terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers,” Trump said.
“So we’re getting out. But we will start to renegotiate and we will see if we can make a deal that is fair. If we can, great. If we can’t, that’s fine. As President, I can put no other consideration before the wellbeing of American citizens, ” he added. “The Paris climate accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries leaving American workers, who I love, and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production.”
“Thus as of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the nonbinding Paris accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country,” Trump announced.
His decision also ends the U.S. implementation of the nationally determined contribution and green climate fund.
“This is costing the United States a vast fortune,” Trump said.
“Compliance with the terms of the Paris accord and the onerous energy restrictions it has placed on on the United States could cost America as much as 2.7 million lost jobs by 2025 according to the National Economic Research Associates. This includes 447,000 fewer manufacturing jobs,” Trump said.
Trump received pressure from world leaders and the left. His decision pleased conservatives skeptical of the Paris agreement.
“Not only Americans but people all over the world should celebrate,” said Cornwall Alliance Founder and National Spokesman Dr. E. Calvin Beisner.
“It’s the right decision,” Dr. Beisner said. “It’s right because, as former NASA scientist and leading climate alarmist Dr. James Hansen put it, the Paris agreement is ‘a fraud, really, a fake … just worthless words.”
Beisner noted that assuming climate alarmists are right and human emissions of carbon dioxide are driving dangerous global warming, full implementation of the Paris agreement throughout this century would be no help to the environment or to people. Instead, it would be harmful to both.
“And as President Trump said today, the Paris agreement is predicted by its proponents to ‘reduce global temperature by no more than 2 tenths of a degree Celsius.’ That reduction would cost $23 to $46 trillion per tenth of a degree Fahrenheit—an amount that will have no effect on the environment or human well-being,” Beisner stated.
“It would trap billions in poverty for decades to come,” Beisner added.
Beisner wasn’t alone in his assessment of the accord.
“President Obama’s symbolic Paris agreement was a giveaway to special interests – at the expense of hardworking Americans – and would have had no discernible impact on the climate. The truth is, the kind of harmful regulations and mandates in this agreement are exactly what cripple economies and stifle the very investment and innovation needed to truly improve the environment,” Freedom Partners Vice President of Policy Nathan Nascimento said in a released statement. “President Trump is right to withdraw from this bad deal and we urge continued action by the administration and Congress to repeal as many job-crushing regulations as soon as possible. A clean environment requires a growing and thriving economy, and any deal that sacrifices economic growth would be counterproductive for the environment and devastating to American families.”
“President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement is good news for our country’s economy, workers, and taxpayers. By 2035, the regulations related to the agreement would reduce our GDP by $2.5 trillion, cause a shortfall of nearly 400,000 American jobs, increase household electricity costs by 13 – 20%, and reduce incomes by more than $20,000 for the average American family of four,” Congressman Rod Blum (R-Iowa) said in a released statement.
“We need common sense regulations that keep our environment clean, but we can do that while keeping energy costs affordable and allowing our economy to create good-paying jobs. And instead of sending billions in taxpayer dollars overseas we should invest that money here to develop an “all of the above” American energy policy that includes renewables like biofuels and wind,” Blum added.
“I commend President Trump for putting American jobs first. This is great news for the Texas economy and for hardworking Americans all across our country. This is great news for family budgets, which under the Obama Paris plan would have seen significant increases in costs for utilities and nearly everything powered by fossil fuels, which accounts for 82 percent of all the energy generated in the United States. The Paris agreement would have destroyed $3 trillion in American GDP and killed 6.5 million industrial sector jobs by 2040, while even EPA’s own models conclude that it will have a negligible impact on global temperatures. And, it gave Russia and China and India a free pass, while hammering American jobs. I look forward continuing to work closely with the administration throughout the withdrawal process, and my number-one priority will continue to be fighting for Texans to advance policies that create jobs, grow the economy, and protect family budgets,” U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in a released statement.