Trump: The Koch Bros Have My Right Ear

Excuse me, as an apprentice president I haven’t got a clue about the direction of climate change. I listen to my BIG sponsors and the people running the coal mines in West Virginia and Kentucky. Thatcher closed the coal mines in Wales suring the 80s … she was wrong! Angela Merkel shut down coal mines in Westphalia and had the courage to end nuclear energy. Very, very wrong! New slogan of Republicans in the Real World: AMERICA LAST!! A BIG, BIG decision by me, it’s jobs, jobs I’m thinking about …

President’s Paris climate speech annotated: Trump’s claims analysed | The Guardian |

“So we’re getting out. But we will start to negotiate,
and we will see if we can make a deal that’s fair. And
if we can, that’s great. And if we can’t, that’s fine.”

Trump’s vision of a hobbled America, ransacked by pointless environmental regulation, draws upon a highly disputed study published in March. National Economic Research Associates has done work for front groups for coal companies in the past and this study was at the behest of the American Council for Capital Formation, which counts Exxon Mobil, the American Petroleum Institute and Charles Koch as major donors .

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The Paris agreement itself places no “energy restrictions” on the US – it’s a voluntary agreement that leaves it up to countries to decide how to cut their emissions. But several economists have warned that leaving the Paris agreement will stymie clean energy investment and ensure the production of solar panels and wind turbines – the very blue-collar jobs Trump claims to value – will take place in China rather than the US.

It could get worse still – some countries are mulling a carbon “tariff” on US goods over Trump’s decision to swim against the energy transition that is underway. None of this will help a coal industry that was in decline long before the Paris deal. This is perhaps why business support for Paris is broad, uniting the likes of Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Apple and even BP.

Disney CEO Iger quits Trump council over climate decision | CNBC |