Washington, D.C. – Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today released the following statement ahead of Sec. John Kerry’s signing of a United Nations climate deal scheduled for tomorrow morning. The deal was negotiated in Paris last December and the president pledged that the United States will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 28 percent over the next decade and by 80 percent or more by 2050.
Chairman Smith: “The Paris climate agreement is a bad deal for America. The president’s promise is an unworkable political gesture. This administration has put ideology ahead of what’s best for hardworking American families. This deal will raise electric bills, ration energy and slow economic growth.
“The Clean Power Plan, which is the cornerstone of the president’s pledge, would reduce global temperatures by just one one-hundredth of a degree Celsius. Further, the courts have blocked the Clean Power Plan’s enactment because so many states oppose it. Why put Americans out of work and our nation at an economic disadvantage for little environmental benefit?
“Meanwhile, the administration is selling its agenda with alarmist rhetoric that lacks scientific evidence. The American people deserve policies based on good science, not an extreme agenda based on science fiction.”
The Science Committee held several hearings to examine the various scientific and policy issues surrounding the president’s promise to the U.N. to limit greenhouse gas emissions.