Trump to Pull US Out of Paris Climate Deal: Reports

The Hill covers the Paris Climate Agreement.

President Trump will pull the United States out of the Paris climate change agreement, according to several reports Wednesday.

Axios first reported that Trump is working with a group led by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt on the exact mechanism of pulling out before announcing his final decision. CBS News also reported that Trump is telling allies about his decision.

The move marks a dramatic departure from the Obama administration, which was instrumental in crafting the deal. It also makes the U.S. an outlier among the world’s nations, nearly all of whom support the climate change accord.

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His decision to leave the deal comes after scores of stakeholders asked Trump to keep the U.S. in the agreement, including businesses, environmentalists, major energy companies, Democrats, a handful of congressional Republicans and some officials in his administration.

Numerous companies and individuals aligned with Trump on other policies have publicly pushed him recently to remain in the agreement, including ExxonMobil Corp. and Cloud Peak Energy. They argued the U.S. needs to stay involved in climate work to have influence over global policy decisions that could impact their bottom lines.

Several GOP lawmakers, such as Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and John McCain (Ariz.), had hoped he would stay in the deal as well.

But the president was also facing significant pressure from the right to exit the pact, including from Pruitt, White House strategist Stephen Bannon and major conservative groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation, as well as the 22 GOP senators who sent him the letter last week.

Read the full article at The Hill.