On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that he had begun the official process of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. Trump had long announced the withdrawal, but the process requires a formal notification of withdrawal, which will be completed one year after the notification. This delay illustrates how the agreement limited America’s sovereignty to make its own climate and energy policy.
Myron Ebell, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, condemned the Paris agreement as “disastrous.”
“Secretary of State Pompeo has today started the formal process to withdraw the United States from the disastrous UN Paris climate treaty and reclaim its sovereign right to set its own energy policy,” Ebell said. “This is a great day for America, particularly for the future economic success and security of countless Americans. CEI congratulates President Trump for keeping his most important deregulatory campaign promise and looking out for the country’s best interests.”
CEI Senior Fellow Pat Michaels described the Paris Agreement as “climatically meaningless” and warned that the deal “guarantees that China will produce the lion’s share of carbon dioxide emissions for the foreseeable future.” He further noted that “since 2005, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions have dropped more than those from any other large industrialized nation. We didn’t have Paris in 2005 and we don’t need it now.”
H. Sterling Burnett, senior fellow in environment and energy policy at the Heartland Institute, also celebrated the withdrawal.
“This is great news. Trump set the United States on the road to energy independence with his regulatory reforms. Now he is boosting U.S. sovereignty and putting Americans first by withdrawing us from the Paris climate agreement, which was nothing more than an attempt by the global elites to control free economic choices by directing energy usage,” Burnett said.
Democrats predictably panned the decision.
“As the climate crisis worsens each day and California burns and Iowa floods, Trump continues to abandon science and our international leadership. He just notified the United Nations of our official withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. It’s shameful,” declared former Vice President Joe Biden, one of the leading 2020 Democrats.
As the climate crisis worsens each day and California burns and Iowa floods, Trump continues to abandon science and our international leadership. He just notified the United Nations of our official withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. It's shameful. https://t.co/5UikQrsS3u
— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) November 4, 2019
‘We need to be strengthening our response to climate change—but Trump and his administration are running away from our responsibilities,” tweeted Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a leader in the Democratic presidential race. “I’ll move to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement on day one of my presidency.”
We need to be strengthening our response to climate change—but Trump and his administration are running away from our responsibilities. I'll move to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement on day one of my presidency. https://t.co/AZcydeOkHa
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 5, 2019
“When we take back the White House, we will not only rejoin the Paris Agreement,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) pledged. “We will launch the decade of the Green New Deal to lead the world in averting the climate crisis and create 20 million new jobs.”
When we take back the White House, we will not only rejoin the Paris Agreement. We will launch the decade of the Green New Deal to lead the world in averting the climate crisis and create 20 million new jobs. Read our plan: https://t.co/ICGwA1xSoS
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) November 4, 2019
“Climate catastrophe is on the horizon—whether this president believes it or not. As president, I will restore American credibility and leadership by rejoining the [Paris Agreement] and engaging the world to tackle climate as the global security issue of our time. We can’t wait,” Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Ind., tweeted.
Climate catastrophe is on the horizon—whether this president believes it or not. As president, I will restore American credibility and leadership by rejoining the #ParisAgreement and engaging the world to tackle climate as the global security issue of our time. We can’t wait.
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) November 5, 2019
Contrary to all this alarmism, predictions of climate catastrophe — extreme cold, extreme heat, glaciers melting, cities underwater — have failed to come to pass. In one of the most embarrassing examples, alarmists predicted that The Maldives Islands in the Indian Ocean would sink beneath the waves in 2018 — and the islands are still there. In fact, they have actually grown in recent years!
Meanwhile, Democrats have also championed the disastrous and unaffordable Green New Deal. Taxing the rich at 100 percent would not even come close to footing the bill for the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, according to a Heritage Foundation study. Even assuming the economy would not crash under such plans, a 100 percent income tax on all incomes above $200,000 and a confiscation of all corporate profits would still fall $13.2 trillion short of paying for the low estimate of the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. That number is based on the $48 trillion (close to the PJ Media analysis of $49.109 trillion over ten years) low-end estimate. This fanciful number is still $57.8 trillion short of the American Action Forum estimate of $93 trillion.
These costs seem abstract and many Americans’ eyes may glaze over when hearing about trillions of dollars and ballooning federal deficits. A CEI/Power the Future study made the cost more concrete: It found that the Green New Deal would cost the average American family $250,000 in the first five years.
Even Americans who are predisposed to listen to this Chicken Little alarmism should think twice about the Green New Deal when hearing those numbers.
By pulling out of the Paris Agreement, Trump is defending America’s national sovereignty and economic growth. The president is right on this issue.
Follow Tyler O’Neil, the author of this article, on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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