Conservatives face off on Obama-era agreement

Greenwire cited Myron Ebell on CEI’s coalition letter to reject the Kigali Amendment.

Almost two dozen conservative and free-market groups are pushing back against a growing group of Republican lawmakers supporting an Obama-era climate agreement.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation and American Energy Alliance jointly asked the White House today not to send the so-called Kigali Amendment to the Senate for approval.

The amendment — named for the Rwandan capital where it was finalized in 2016 — would phase out the potent greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

“We urge you not to submit this United Nations treaty negotiated by the Obama Administration to the Senate,” the groups told Trump in the letter. “Congress should be spending its time working with you to cut red tape, not add to it.”

Signatories of the letter included Tim Chapman, executive director of the Heritage Foundation; Myron Ebell, EPA transition team lead and energy and environment director at the CEI; and Princeton University physicist William Happer, who has argued more carbon dioxide is good for the planet. Also signing the letter was Thomas Pyle, who led Trump’s DOE transition and is now president of the American Energy Alliance.

While the pushback is not unexpected, the groups involved have found some influential footing within the Trump administration.

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