CEI Commends President Trump’s Decision to Cancel Paris Climate Agreement

Today, President Trump announced he will withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. The Competitive Enterprise Institute commends the decision as a positive move for all Americans:

CEI’s Director of the Center for Energy and Environment, Myron Ebell responded to President Trump’s announcement:

President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Treaty is welcome news and leads America—and the world—to a brighter future as lower energy prices over the long-term will benefit consumers and energy-intensive industries. The President’s energy agenda is also a key part of returning the U.S. economy to three percent annual growth.

The agreement involves enormous costs for zero benefits, and requires member countries to submit new, steeper commitments to reduce emissions every five years. Its global energy-rationing regime consigns poor people in developing countries to perpetual energy poverty.

To put an end to this 25-year misadventure in global governance and prevent a future stroke of the pen from restarting this mess, President Trump should submit the treaty to the Senate for its advice and consent. The Senate will then have the opportunity to listen to the will of the American people and vote against the treaty.

CEI Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis said the following about the announcement:

President Trump kept an open mind, listened to all sides, and made the proper decision. Exiting the Paris Climate Treaty overturns Obama’s end run around the Constitution’s treaty process, safeguards American democracy from foreign interference, dispels the Agreement’s long shadow over the U.S. energy and manufacturing sectors, foils corporate welfare schemes that enrich special interests at taxpayers’ expense, and expands access to affordable energy around the globe, helping eradicate poverty at home and abroad.

The Paris Agreement was the capstone of President Obama’s climate action plan, the political strategy that gave legally dubious climate policies a treaty-like status without going through the Constitutional treaty process. By relabeling his domestic climate agenda as commitments America made to the world, Obama tried to dictate U.S. energy policy for decades to come regardless of the preferences of future Presidents, Congresses, and voters.

CEI Senior Fellow Christopher Horner said the following about the announcement:

President Trump did the right thing in keeping his promise to withdraw from the improperly concluded Paris Climate Treaty. The pact promised no measurable impacts on climate at spectacular financial cost. Internal State Department records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act affirm State Department acknowledgment and recognition of the harm these types of policies are doing to European economies pushing for American “leadership” on this issue, meaning sacrificing our energy cost advantage that comes from better policies and innovation. Withdrawing shows our allies that we have a Constitutional process for such agreements, which should be used going forward, and discourages future political efforts by U.S. Presidents to undermine and avoid the treaty process.

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