The conservative free-market think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute started an online campaign Tuesday to urge President Trump to keep his campaign promise and withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement.
The campaign comes as the president's top advisers assemble Tuesday to decide whether or not to exit from the global accord, even though the White House has repeatedly said it won't make a decision until the end of May. The campaign also reflects the heightened disagreement between factions of the administration that reject and support leaving the deal on global greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Many scientists blame greenhouse gasses from burning fossil fuels for driving manmade climate change.
"The Paris climate treaty requires the United States to make drastic cuts in fossil fuel energy use by 2025, which will raise energy prices and slow economic recovery from our decade-long slump," said Myron Ebell, who leads the free-market group's environment program.
Ebell was Trump's former head of transition for the Environmental Protection Agency. In recent weeks, he has criticized Trump for appearing to be giving way to "swamp creatures," who are urging him not to leave the Paris Agreement.
On Tuesday, White House senior advisers, Cabinet members and their staffs will meet to see if they can form a consensus on whether to pull out of the deal. A cabal within the administration led by senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson favor remaining as signatories to the agreement.
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05.02.2024