CEI and AEA Lead Coalition of Forty Two Free-Market Groups Urging Trump To Withdraw from Paris Climate Agreement

Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and the American Energy Alliance (AEA), along with 40 free-market and conservative organizations, sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to keep his campaign promise to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement and stop all taxpayer funding of United Nations’ global warming programs. 

The letter outlines how the agreement is a treaty that commits the U.S. to actions that are contrary to President Trump’s energy agenda and not in the interest of the American people.

“The Paris Climate Treaty is an all pain for no gain agreement that will produce no measurable climate benefits and exacerbate energy poverty around the globe,” said Myron Ebell, director of CEI’s Center for Energy and Environment and former head of Trump’s EPA transition team. “The Paris treaty undermines American democracy and allows foreign bureaucrats to determine the direction of U.S. domestic economic and energy policy. Its main goal is to build a green industrial complex on the backs of American consumers and taxpayers.”

The letter argues the plain language in the Paris treaty does not allow the U.S. to renegotiate or lower our commitment to reducing the usage of fossil fuels, but instead would require more ambitious commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions every five years in perpetuity. Further, failing to withdraw from the Paris treaty exposes key parts of Trump’s deregulatory energy agenda to unnecessary legal risk. 

“Remaining in the Paris Climate Treaty would undermine the Trump administration’s efforts to protect American families from unnecessary and burdensome climate regulations,” said Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance and former head of Trump’s DOE transition team.

“The treaty is based on the idea that from now on developed nations like the U.S. must live with less and pay more. That is not the American way,” said Pyle. “President Trump’s ‘America First’ energy plan is about making energy more affordable and giving Americans more say over their energy choices. The Paris treaty stands in the way of achieving that goal. It’s time for President Trump to fulfill the promise he made to the American worker and withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Treaty.”​

Read the full letter online.

*This release was updated on May 8, 2017, to reflect additional signers of the coalition letter.