President Donald J. Trump announces his decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord, the Paris Agreement. (Photo: SS)
With his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Accord, President Donald J. Trump lived up to his pledge to put “America First” before global special interest. The President’s address in the Rose Garden followed weeks of intense lobbying on behalf of millionaires and billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban.
The two moguls, who banked on a Clinton win in November, stand to lose a lot of investment money as a result of the decision. Like it or not, the American worker was at the forefront of the President’s mind and he made that perfectly clear Thursday afternoon.
“No responsible leader can put the workers and the people of this country at such a debilitating disadvantage,” President Trump said. “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris. I promised I would exit or renegotiate any deal that does not serve their interest.”
The President also made it clear that he is willing to work on a new deal with Democrats and world leaders to negotiate better terms for America. But he repeatedly stated he could not allow this particular deal to stand for the simple reason that it was intentionally designed to disadvantage American workers and businesses.
“It’s time to put Youngstown, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before Paris, France.”
According to the National Economic Research Associates, compliance with the terms of the Paris Accord would cause U.S. production 2.7 million jobs. As the President stated, that includes “thousands of manufacturing jobs (400K), automobile jobs and the further decimation of vital American industries on which countless communities rely.”
Overall, the cost to the U.S. economy during implementation of the Paris Agreement would be close to 3 trillion to gross domestic product (GDP) and 6.5 million industrial jobs. Meanwhile, U.S. households would have on average $7,000 less in income. As President Trump stated, the study found paper production would decline by 12%; cement production were fall 23%; iron and steel 38%; coal by a whopping 86%; and natural gas production would decline 31%.
“The bottom line the Paris Accord is very unfair to the United States,” he said. “It fails to live up to our environmental ideals. As someone who cares deeply about our environment, which it does, I cannot in good conscience allow such a deal that punishes the United States while allowing the world’s greatest polluters to get a pass.”
