By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Thursday, June 1, 2017, President Donald J. Trump (R) announced that the United States would leave the controversial Paris Agreement, a deal that opponents say would have cost the American economy billions of dollars.
Alabama Republican Party Chairman Terry Lathan supports President Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement. Chairman Lathan said, “Today President Trump delivered on another one of his campaign promises as he pulled our nation out of the 2015 Paris Agreement. In doing so, this in no way means that we do not love our beloved country and world by stepping away from this arrangement. In fact, the Paris Agreement is voluntary with absolutely no consequences for a nation who signed the accord. It is an ineffective trillion-dollar toothless tiger that President Trump clearly recognizes is not in our best interest.”
US Senator Luther Strange (R) said, “President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement puts the United States one step closer to relief from the burden of anti-growth, job-killing regulations in the Clean Power Plan. The Obama administration’s push to join the Agreement without the advice and consent of the Senate challenged the separation of powers and local economies across the country. After joining my Senate colleagues earlier this month to recommend the withdrawal, I am proud to see the President continue to take a hard stance against this wet blanket of over-regulation.”
US Representative Bradley Byrne (R from Montrose) said, “I wanted to share my thoughts on President Trump’s decision to exit the Paris Climate Agreement. I was not for the United States signing it in the first place because I considered it to be a sham on the basis of two facts. First, each nation got to pick its own goals or targets and as a result many nations targets are far below what they should be doing relative to others. This penalizes the United States as we have ambitious targets. China, for example, will be allowed to take far longer to meet its targets than we would have been. Second, there is no enforcement mechanism so there is no real accountability. Nations acting in good faith like the United States would make the sacrifices and take the economic hit for doing so, while those not acting in good faith can cheat without any consequence.”
Chairman Lathan added, “President Obama pledged $100 billion in taxpayer money to this proposition to ‘possibly’ lower carbon emissions a hundred years from now. He bypassed Congress on joining the agreement because he would not have had their support. American businesses and industries ultimately would be forced to spend trillions of dollars to comply with this arrangement. Those costs would be passed on to American families and result in hundreds of thousands of job losses in our nation.”
US Senate Candidate Dr. Randy Brinson (R) sai on social media, “I fully support President Donald J. Trump in his decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. We need to save our jobs and protect American families.”
