White House

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) has joined a coalition of over forty free-market and conservative groups calling on the White House to fully withdraw from former President Obama’s Paris Climate Treaty, and to cease all taxpayer funding of United Nations (UN) global warming programs.

The forty-four-member coalition sent a letter to President Donald Trump this month expressing support for the President’s campaign commitments to withdraw from the Paris Climate Treaty, reiterating the fact that the treaty is not in the interest of the American people. The letter offers several options for President Trump to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris treaty.

First, the President could submit the Paris Climate Treaty to the Senate for its advice and consent with the recommendation that the treaty not be ratified. Second, the President could withdraw from the underlying UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

The first two options being the most preferable, the letter also suggests that President Trump can announce his intentions to withdraw from the treaty according to a four-year schedule specified in the treaty and continue the process of repealing regulations that the Obama administration submitted as part of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). 

This week the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Scott Pruitt, reiterated his long held position that the U.S. should withdraw from the treaty, stating it is “a bad business deal at its core.” Pruitt went on to say “Paris represents basically the rest of the world applauding as we penalize ourselves and our economy.” 

During his 100-day rally in Harrisburg Pennsylvania this year, President Trump expressed his opinion that the Paris Treaty is not in the interest of the American people, in line with his stated goal of withdraw while on the campaign trail.

The full coalition letter can be found here.  

 

Photo credit: Nicolas Karim