President Trump is edging closer to taking the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The clincher, according to insider reports, is that he has been warned by lawyers that if he doesn’t pull out it may seriously affect his plans to revive the U.S. economy with cheap, abundant fossil fuel and a reduction in environmentalist red tape.
Up until now Trump has been torn between two factions within the White House: the Steve Bannon/Scott Pruitt faction who think he should honor his campaign promise to quit; and the Ivanka/Jared Kushner/Rex Tillerson faction which would prefer the U.S. stay and keep a “seat at the table.”
But as Trump hinted at a Saturday rally – when he described the agreement as ‘one-sided’ and an example of the kind of deal where ‘the United States pays the costs and bears the burdens while other countries get the benefit and pay nothing’ – he is now inclined towards exit.
The agreement states that a country “may at any time adjust its existing nationally determined contribution with a view to enhancing its level of ambition,” which sources say concerns White House Counsel Don McGahn and his staff.
If Trump wanted to ratchet down former President Barack Obama’s promise of a 26 percent to 28 percent emissions cut by 2025, the agreement may prevent it.
The administration is also worried that staying in the accord would give environmentalists a legal argument to prevent Trump from repealing climate regulations like the Clean Power Plan.
If and when Trump does pull out the worldwide repercussions will be enormous. “Climate change” is so embedded in the consciousness of the political, corporate and financial elite that even this random guy from NATO is asking us, straightfaced, to believe that it represents some kind of major global security threat.
General Denis Mercier – who glories in the title of “Nato’s supreme allied commander for transformation” – says:
“If one nation, especially the biggest nation… if they do not recognise a problem, then we will have trouble dealing with the causes of climate change.”
And I don’t think he means China.
Nor, you can be sure, will the withdrawal be greeted with much applause by the mainstream media.
To give you an idea, here’s how CNN dealt with the possibility that Trump might pull out of Paris.
“What happens if the U.S. pulls out?” Jake Tapper asks CNN’s in-house expert Rene Marsh.
Marsh tells it as only a CNN environmental reporter can: “Essentially this agreement is, many would argue, to save the planet. They want to rid the planet of this carbon pollution in this century.”
And now evil President Trump wants to stop saving the planet and keep all that carbon pollution. Oh the humanity! Oh the polar bears….
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