Wednesday, May 31, 2017

THE PARIS ACCORDS

Rex Tillerson and Rock Perry advised Trump to remain in the Paris Accords, then world's largest agreement. The President of Exxon-Mobil wrote a personal letter to Trump urging him to stay in. On Air Force One coming back to the United States, Gary Cohen of Trump's Economic Council said that if the United States adopted solar and win technologies, the United States would experience becoming a powerhouse of manufacturing. 

According to Yale, 70% of Americans want to stay in the agreement and it is over 50% in all 50 states. 

China is now dealing with the EU to bolster their compliance with the Paris Accords and India's Prime Minister Modi said that tampering with the environment of our children and grandchildren is a crime.

Even Ken Burns who was W's undersecretary of state said this would be a colossal historic mistake . "We would be abdicating" leadership on the world's stage. 

The United Nations has found that "unsubsidized" solar energy is now the cheapest source if power."

Elon Musk of TESLA has threatened to quit all the Trump advisory boards if he goes through with the threat. 

So now the Paris Accords are all voluntary. If we stayed in, it looks like we would meet the first targets rather easily. Which is why Tillerson and Perry want us to stay in because the new technology for renewables will be coming soon and both en want us to export this technology. If Trump pulls us out, then we will have to import this technology.

So what if he wants to leave--I wrote last week. He could notify the other members in 3 years and leave in 4, just after the next national election. 

But if he wants to leave immediately,then he would to exit the 1992 UN Climate Change Treaty which was ratified by the Senate. That would mean a vote. Jimmy Carter tried to leave a treaty and the Senate prohibited it. 

I would say the issue is a problem for Trump. It appears to be a vindictive decision aimed at Obama.

For his part, President Obama tweeted today that the Paris Accords provided "an enduring mechanism which will handle climate change for the future."

A note on taxpayer subsidies--oil has been subsidized since 1919. Clean coal is very expensive and not quite workable.  And nuclear energy is heavily subsidized. Pick your poison.

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