Aiming at Trump, House OKs bill to keep US in climate accord

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Trump pledged in 2017 to withdraw from the Paris agreement as soon as 2020, and the White House said in a statement that the bill “is inconsistent with the president’s commitment to put American workers and families first, promote access to affordable, reliable energy sources and technologies and improve the quality of life for all Americans.”

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The White House also asserted that the bill would interfere with Trump’s constitutional authority to conduct foreign policy, including the power to withdraw from an executive agreement that Congress has not ratified.

The Paris agreement, signed in 2015 by more than 190 counties, is a U.N. initiative intended to bring the world together in the fight against climate change. Signed by President Barack Obama, the pact commits the United States to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 25 per cent below 2005 levels by 2025.

The U.S. also pledged $3 billion to a fund that helps developing countries fight climate change.

Democrats said the bill showed that the U.S. will remain a leader on climate issues. “America does not cut and run. America keeps its commitments,” Castor said.

Caster noted that she and her family boarded up and fled their Florida home during Hurricane Irma two year ago, and said she understands the urgent need to act on climate change. The House bill, she said, “will help us carry out our moral obligation to future generations to tackle this crisis now.”

Republicans derided the bill as a largely symbolic effort that would harm the American economy while doing little or nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.

Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, said the bill would “wreck the economy” and cost as many as 2.7 million American jobs that he said would go to China, India and other countries that do not have to meet goals under the Paris accord until 2030.

“We don’t want to lose the great economic gains we have achieved, and we don’t want to lose the reduction in carbon emissions that we’ve been able to achieve over the last 19 years because of … great innovation in technology that America has always been known for,” Scalise said at a news conference. “Let’s not yield those kinds of gains to countries like China and India who emit five times more carbon than we do.”

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said the Democratic measure was “simply another messaging bill to go on record against President Trump.”

Matthew Daly, The Associated Press