Larry Kudlow, the economic guru and former adviser to President Ronald Reagan, said President Donald Trump is right to pull the U.S. out of a 2015 global agreement to fight climate change. A key question is how the country will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.
“He could put it to the Senate. It was never ratified. It is a treaty which was never ratified,” Kudlow said on CNBC. “Also, the United States could take a six- or 12-month moratorium.” Handing the accord to lawmakers would have delayed the accord, given that Sentate has other priorities such as healthcare and tax reforms.
Trump on Thursday said the U.S. would begin negotiations either to re-enter the Paris accord or to have a new agreement "on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers." Trump also decried the treaty’s "draconian" financial and economic burdens. He said American withdrawal "represents a reassertion of American sovereignty."
Kudlow said he’s against the idea of a government setting industrial policy and intervening in free markets. He pointed to the commercialization of fracking technology to drill for lower-emission natural gas as an example of private initiatives that reduce air pollution. The technical innovation was the byproduct of federally funded research, but it required entrepreneurial risk-taking and private interests to be developed, Kudlow said.
He also said that U.S. industry has taken major steps to reduce its emissions, while Germany is raising its emissions by reverting back to burning coal to meet its energy needs.
Kudlow is host of "The Larry Kudlow Show" and author of "JFK and the Reagan Revolution: A Secret History of American Prosperity," written with Brian Domitrovic and published by Portfolio.
Trump tapped into the "America First" message he used when he was elected president last year, saying, "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris."
"We don't want other leaders and other countries laughing at us any more. And they won't be," Trump added.
"In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris climate accord," Trump said.
The United States was one of 195 nations that agreed to the accord in Paris in December 2015, a deal that former U.S. President Barack Obama was instrumental in brokering.
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