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Recently, Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate and an influential member of the business lobby, The Black Chamber of Commerce, have written letters to President Trump encouraging him to keep his promise to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement.
Harry Alford, president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, penned an open letter to President Trump explaining why he should keep his promise and withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Alford notes American families and businesses depend on affordable, reliable energy every day, calling it “the lifeblood of our economy, it is fundamental to our modern society, and it is essential to our future strength, security, and growth.” Alford says remaining in Paris threatens to undermine our nation’s national security and economic well-being because the deal is skewed against the United States and in favor of geopolitical and economic competitors, including China.
Alford concludes the United States must withdraw from Paris because the country “cannot afford … to willingly sacrifice our place as global economic leader to appease international bureaucrats who would seek to dictate what kinds of energy we use in America and how, when, and why we use them.”
Echoing Alford’s letter, 22 members of the Republican caucus in the U.S. Senate, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), signed a letter encouraging Trump to pull out of the Paris climate treaty in order to avoid having environmental groups use the U.S. continued participation in the treaty as a legal justification to force the Trump administration to regulate or tax fossil fuels.
The letter states:
“We applaud you for your ongoing efforts to reduce overregulation in America … To continue on this path, we urge you to make a clean exit from the Paris agreement so that your administration can follow through on its commitment to rescind the Clean Power Plan. … Because of existing provisions within the Clean Air Act and others embedded in the Paris Agreement, remaining in it would subject the United States to significant litigation risk that could upend your Administration’s ability to fulfill its goal of rescinding the Clean Power Plan. Accordingly, we strongly encourage you to make a clean break from the Paris Agreement.”
If Trump is still undecided concerning whether to keep his campaign pledge to the people who elected him to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, let’s hope these letters provide final bit of encouragement he needs to leave the Paris agreement in the dustbin of history. Let other countries labor under Paris’s onerous energy restrictions while the U.S. economy and people flourish under a President who puts his country first.
