Trump dismantling US climate efforts as warnings grow dire

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump has moved steadily to dismantle Obama administration efforts to rein in coal, oil and gas emissions, even as warnings grow – from his own administration and others – about the devastating impact of climate change on the U.S. economy as well as the Earth.

Trump has dismissed his administration’s warnings about the impact of climate change, including a forecast released Friday that it could lead to economic losses of hundreds of billions of dollars a year by the end of the century.

“As to whether or not it’s man-made and whether or not the effects that you’re talking about are there, I don’t see it,” he said in an interview Tuesday with The Washington Post.

Trump’s position has been that efforts to combat the emissions that cause climate change have hurt the U.S. economy.

Announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris global climate accord in June 2017, he said, “The Paris Climate Accord is simply the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, leaving American workers – who I love – and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuttered factories, and vastly diminished economic production.”

An email obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act shows the administration withdrew from the Paris agreement with no clear climate policy in place.

“All, the purpose of this meeting is to explore whether, post Paris, we need to develop, or simply piece together from what already exists, a policy proposal that can be characterized as the “Trump climate policy,” Michael Catanzaro, a former oil and gas lobbyist then serving as Trump’s energy and environment consultant, wrote to White House and Environmental Protection Agency officials days after the president’s announcement.

The EPA did not respond to requests for details on the meeting, or on any subsequent Trump climate policy.

In an email Wednesday, the State Department noted that the U.S. is still taking part in global climate talks.