President Donald Trump, who refused to reaffirm U.S. commitment to the Paris climate accord along with the six other G7 nations over the weekend, allegedly told confidants he plans to pull the U.S. out of the international deal. According to a tweet from POTUS, a final decision is expected this week.
I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2017
Political leaders responded in kind. On CNN’s State of the Union, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said, “If he does withdraw, that would be a definitive statement from the president that he believes climate change is a hoax,” referring to a 2012 comment made by Trump. “So that would be bad for the party, bad for the country.”
Three former Environmental Protection Agency administrators who served under Republican presidents co-penned an op-ed printed in the Washington Post calling climate change a “threat whose potential harm to people and other living things exceeds any we have seen before.” WIlliam D. Ruckelshaus, William K. Reilly and Lee M. Thomas went on to write that “if our president is wrong about the reality of climate change, we will have lost vital time to take steps to avoid the worst impacts of a warming planet. If those urging collective worldwide accelerated action are wrong, we will have developed alternative sources of clean energy that will enhance our green energy choices for the foreseeable future.”
Among those preaching withdrawal are former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who told Fox and Friends on Sunday that while “everybody wants a good environment… Donald Trump is on the right track. He’s trying to change the climate of terrorism because he knows a beheading is still worse than a sunburn.” Likewise pushing for the U.S. to leave Paris is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. According to the presidential also-ran, “we simply cannot afford an agreement that puts thousands of Americans out of work, increases their energy costs and devastates our core industries.”
In the words of Carmel, Indiana Mayor Jim Brainard, “when a country makes an agreement, we ought to stick to it.” The longtime Republican has advocated for climate action, taking steps at the local level to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in his city.