Jun 10, 2017 6 min read

President Trump’s announcement that the United States was withdrawing from the Paris climate accord apparently has caused more liberal anxiety than any event since his election but, unfortunately, no further pledges from Hollywood types to leave the country.

At one point in his speech announcing the withdrawal, in an attempt to explain his focus on protecting American interests, President Trump said, “I was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris.”

This drew immediate reaction from His Honor, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto. Peduto said that he was “offended” that Trump mentioned Pittsburgh in his climate speech. While the mayor has every right to be offended if he wishes, there are many others who are equally offended that Peduto is associated with Pittsburgh, so I guess we have a standoff.

The mayor noted, incorrectly, that, “Hillary Clinton collected 80 percent of the votes that Pittsburghers cast in November.” I can think of better advertisements for Pittsburgh but, hey, go for it Mr. Mayor. Every surrounding county went for Trump by margins of 60 percent to 75 percent.

In withdrawing from the Paris accord, Trump is doing exactly what he promised to do during his campaign and what the American people elected him to do. He is withdrawing America from an agreement that was poorly negotiated, that has no chance of achieving its vaguely stated goals, that would have cost this nation untold billions of dollars and millions of lost jobs, that would create a monumental income-redistribution slush fund for globalist United Nations bureaucrats and that was unconstitutionally entered into in the first place.

The president rightly is putting America and American workers first.

While liberals and academics are busy indulging in hysterical responses to the withdrawal, I suspect few have any idea what the accord really says or requires.

The stated aims of the accord are to limit the increase in global average temperature to “well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels,” increase the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change in a manner that does not threaten food production and to make finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse emissions.

Reduced to its essence, all this is to be achieved by reducing the global production of carbon dioxide by amounts to be determined voluntarily by the signatory nations. There are no mandatory amounts, there is no compliance monitoring and there are no non-compliance penalties. In fact, if all signatories were to comply with their voluntary commitments, the earth’s temperature is estimated to be reduced by less than 0.17 degree C in the next 85 years. If China were not to comply with its commitment for a total of three weeks, it would negate the U.S. commitment altogether.

The big kicker is the finance agreement by which developed countries are supposed to commit to mobilize $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020 and continue to mobilize $100 billion a year until 2025 to aid developing countries in some unspecified actions to deal with unspecified and speculative climate-change impacts. What could possibly go wrong with a well-defined plan like that?

In 2016, the Obama administration gave a grant of $500 million to the Green Climate Fund as the first payment of a $3 billion commitment. Does anyone know what this fund is supposed to do? It is administered by the UN, a problem in and of itself, for “green projects.” Noble, but with apparently no oversight. All of these commitments of American taxpayer money were made without any authorization from Congress.

The cost to the U.S. economy for meeting the Obama administration requirements for the climate accord is estimated by NERA Economic Consulting to be $3 trillion over a period of several decades. By 2040, our economy would lose 6.6 million industrial-sector jobs, of which 3.1 million would be in manufacturing. In Washington County, we have already seen the brutal impact of what the Paris accord would look like in shut-down coal mines, endangered power plants and the struggling steel towns of the Mon Valley.

The United States is already $20 trillion in debt, thanks in large measure to the Obama administration. American taxpayers must not be burdened with more debt to subsidize the energy needs of other countries under the guise of an undefined, uncontrolled, unmonitored and unattainable clean energy plan that will do little for the climate.

All most people heard in the president’s speech was his description of how the agreement was bad for the economy, bad for taxpayers and of very questionable value in protecting the environment. He also said that the U.S. would be environmentally conscious, but not by shipping our jobs overseas, shutting down our energy industry or diminishing our national prosperity and quality of life. That is what I would expect an American president to say, and it was a relief after the past eight years.

That was not the most significant part of his speech, however. What made his speech significant was what he said about restoring American exceptionalism. In discussing additional reasons for withdrawing, Trump said, “There are serious legal and constitutional issues as well. Foreign leaders in Europe, Asia and across the world, should not have more to say with respect to the U.S. economy than our own citizens and their elected representatives, thus, our withdrawal from the agreement represents a reassertion of America’s sovereignty. Our Constitution is unique among all nations of the world. And it is my highest obligation and greatest honor to protect it. And I will. It would once have been unthinkable that an international agreement could prevent the United States from conducting its own domestic affairs but this is the new reality we face if we do not leave this agreement or if we do not negotiate a far better deal.”

I hope everyone understands the importance of those words. In making that statement, the president announced that we are no longer on the path of globalization. “America First” will become a meaningful and sincere policy. The implications of this are huge and deserve full discussion in future writings.

For the present, the president has done the right thing for the nation and certainly for the citizens of Washington County in leaving the Paris climate accord.

Ball is a councilman in Peters Township.