Simpson letter: Climate accord

Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo say the Paris climate accord would cost nearly $3 trillion to implement and cost nearly 6.5 million industrial and manufacturing jobs.

Numbers apparently come from a NERA model that paints the worst-case scenario while ignoring any benefit of avoiding climate change.

They continue that “Researchers from MIT have concluded that the agreement would likely do little for the environment, reducing global temperatures by less than .2 degrees Celsius before 2100.”

However, MIT researchers say that the interpretation of the study is totally wrong, and believe that the Paris agreement is an unprecedented and vital effort by nearly 200 countries to respond to the urgent threat of global climate change.

Finally, Crapo said, “It would allow other countries like China to continue polluting for decades….” Anyone who has traveled to China in recent years observes that the Chinese are grappling with a major problem to solve as not only are their economic activities major contributors to global warming, but they are also making Chinese air quality extremely bad producing a major public health problem. Therefore, they must reduce global warming.

We are deserting the climate effort, leaving no vestiges of U.S. leadership. Isn’t that a problem?

This story was originally published June 14, 2017 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Simpson letter: Climate accord."