House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues are pushing a new climate bill that could effectively reshape the entire Paris accord and legally bind the Trump administration to the deal.
Pelosi’s Climate Action Now Act, announced Wednesday to media fanfare, aims to prevent President Donald Trump from removing the U.S. from the 2016 accord.
The deal, which compels the country to cut greenhouse gas emissions 26 to 28 percent by 2025, is a non-binding agreement made after former President Barack Obama was unable to get the required votes in Congress to make it a treaty.
If the California Democrat wants to legally force Trump to abide by the deal, then she needs to go through the complicated legal process to make the deal a treaty rather than a non-binding deal, Competitive Enterprise Institute senior fellow Chris Horner told The Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday.
“The bill asserts that Paris is presently binding on the U.S., would bind us to its terms if we remain signatories, and seeks to ensure that Pres. Trump cannot consummate his promise to withdraw by his announced pathway before they have a chance to retake the White House and lock us in,” he said via email.
Horner added: “Or if you want legislative involvement suddenly, it’s a treaty, as it obviously is, and transmit it to the Senate for a ratification vote. If Speaker Pelosi wants to formalize matters, let’s do it the way the rest of the world did particularly our European models — by submitting it to our elected representatives for a vote, as a treaty, pursuant to our governing constitution.”
SEE ALSO: China Boosts Coal Mining Capacity Despite Climate Pledges
Pelosi’s bill is a watered-down version of New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, which called for a near complete shift away from fossil fuels and toward green energy.
The GND was torpedoed in the Senate Tuesday after Republicans voted against the resolution while Democrats voted present.
European officials heavily criticized Trump for deciding to leave the Paris accord shortly after taking office.
Democratic governors and wealthy environmental groups created the Global Climate Action Summit in September 2018, bringing together activists to promote the goals of the Paris climate accord.
The new bill could hit some speed bumps, especially if it attempts to bind Trump to the dying deal.
Obama joined the Paris accord after years of working behind the scenes to craft what would become a non-binding deal, but he did so without submitting it to the Senate. His signature achievement was ultimately dashed after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost to Trump.
Tethering the president and the country to Paris could affect the other participants in the deal.
China, one of the more than 200 other countries that signed on to the deal, is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter and made no commitment to cut greenhouse emissions. Instead, the communist nation said it would reach peak emissions by 2030. China is also not legally obligated to comply with the accord.
Read more at Daily Caller
Yes indeed, if Madame Pelosi wants it to be a law, then it needs to be sent through to the Senate as a treaty and work its way to becoming a signed treaty. Ain’t never gonna happen
Nasty Nancy Watermelon Democrat It might interest you to know that she is related to California’s idiot Govenor Gavin Newsom yes Tweeldee Dee and Tweeldee Dum
As long as Tom Steyer is directing the Democrat agenda they are f@#ked .
What brilliant mind wrote the “Green Deal ” ?
What have we learned about the Democrat policy priorities in one month
1. The Green Deal would turn the USA into a wasteland . Ie San Francisco on steroids .
2. Free everything from a socialist government in exchange for slavery and servitude.
3. Wide open borders .
4. The elimination of ICE .
5. Expanded Supreme Court to ensure more dumb asses like the ones on the ninth circuit.
6. $ Billions in transfer payments to China and other mass polluting countries .
7. A Carbon Tax to cripple the economy and gut the middle class at an accelerated rate .
8. Destruction of the Constitution to a cut and paste document .
9. Allow illegal immigrants to vote like they already do in California .
10. Eliminate and restrict freedom of speech through intimidation and the bias of social media billionaires .
As long as Super Pacs are fed by billionaires controlling the agenda the USA is increasingly in peril . No wonder nothing gets done while the world looks on in disbelief and enemies exploit the incompetents .
Sad really .
Our founding fathers were very smart define the process of signing a treaty. You can’t enter a treaty by passing laws.
President Trump could easily put the Paris Treaty to rest by submitting it to the Senate for ratification. Voting “present” would do nothing to get the treaty passed. Once rejected, all claims that we are bound by some means to follow the treaty would be ended.
I should point out that under President Trump the United States has done more to reduce emissions than many if not most industrial nations.
The Kyoto Treaty was rejected by the Senate during Bill Clintons reign Obama okayed the PARIS Accord but Trump REJECTED IT LIKE THE Green New Deal its all Junk Science and Politics and anything backed by the NYT’s and CNN is not good for America