Donald Trump’s Republican allies applauded the president Thursday for announcing an end to US participation in the Paris climate deal — a move his core supporters demanded, even though most Americans are taking climate change more seriously.
The US public is generally hostile to the idea of exiting an accord that committed its signatories to curbing carbon emissions, but it is largely Democrats who are opposed to backing out more than Republicans.
According to a YouGov poll conducted in May for the Huffington Post, 46 percent of Trump voters favored withdrawing from the agreement, while more than two in 10 had no opinion.
Conversely, 92 percent of people who voted for Trump’s Democratic rival Hillary Clinton wanted the United States to remain at the table.
In Congress, the Republican majority easily passed laws this year that annulled or rolled back various environmental regulations established by the previous president, Barack Obama.
On Thursday, many of those lawmakers rejoiced.
“The #ParisAgreement was simply a raw deal for America,” tweeted House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Since taking office, Trump has aimed to please his base on issues ranging from immigration to national security and the environment, part of a determination to fulfill a raft of campaign pledges.
He relies on the support of hundreds of conservative lawmakers, many of whom represent regions where coal, oil and natural gas are driving the local economy — from parts of the Midwest to Texas and the central great plains.
Coal — an energy source that was in Obama’s crosshairs — still produces some 30 percent of American electricity.
And although it represents only 50,000 jobs, concentrated in Wyoming, West Virginia and Kentucky, coal exerts a disproportionate political influence.
“By withdrawing from this unattainable mandate, President Trump has reiterated his commitment to protecting middle class families across the country and workers throughout coal country from higher energy prices and potential job loss,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky.
“Proud to be sitting in the front row of the Rose Garden in support of @POTUS’s announcement on the #ParisAccord that will save WV jobs,” tweeted West Virginia Republican congressman Alex Mooney.
Not all Republicans on Capitol Hill are climate change skeptics.
Their argument to exit the climate deal is primarily economic: closing coal-fired power plants, imposing punishing regulations on industry, or forcing businesses to use more renewable energy would be too costly in the short term — a theme Trump returned to frequently in his announcement on Thursday.
With fossil fuels abundant, they say, why deprive the nation of such an energy source?
The argument is similar to that used by Republican president George W. Bush when he took office in 2001 and rejected the Kyoto protocol regulating carbon dioxide emissions that was signed by his Democratic predecessor Bill Clinton.
“I will not accept a plan that will harm our economy and hurt American workers,” Bush said on March 29, 2001.
While some US corporate behemoths like ExxonMobil and General Electric opposed Trump exiting Paris, several industry groups and lobbies were pushing him to erase Obama’s regulatory legacy.
The powerful US Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business federation, warned that implementing the agreement would cost the US economy $3 trillion by 2040.
Conservative political action group Americans for Prosperity, funded by the billionaire Koch brothers who head an industrial and chemical empire, also supported the exit, as did dozens of other groups which helped fund Republican election campaigns.
But those political elites appear increasingly out of step with the population, which could eventually pose an electoral challenge.
Some lawmakers from the president’s party broke ranks and defended the Paris Agreement, arguing that Washington should remain a stakeholder as it lowers voluntary emission reduction targets.
Others fear that withdrawal will ultimately weaken US leadership.
“It would be taken as a statement that climate change is not a problem, not real,” Senator Lindsey Graham said on Sunday.
“That would be bad for the party, bad for the country.”
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