Should President Donald Trump follow through on his aim to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, most Republicans would welcome the decision, according to the Washington Examiner.
Trump, a longtime critic of the Paris accords, reportedly told aides he plans to exit the agreement, according to TIME Magazine. On Wednesday, he tweeted that he will announce his decision Thursday.
"The suburban Republicans Trump can get may value a cleaner environment. But they sure don't want the Dutch mandating how we get there," GOP consultant Brad Todd told the Examiner.
Another Republican strategist, who spoke anonymously because his clients did not approve his speaking to the Examiner, said although most in the party believe that climate change is happening, they do not think the solution lies in an international agreement.
"Many upscale suburban Republicans are convinced human actions are changing the climate and they want their representatives to do something about it," he said. "But they're less convinced that an international treaty written in Paris offers a magic formula to solve all the problems."
Should Trump decide to pull out, he has three options:
- Send the agreement to the Senate for formal approval, which requires 67 votes its not likely to get;
- Withdraw the U.S. from a decades-old treaty with the United Nations, a move that would upset the nations who stay in the agreement;
- Follow the time-consuming exit strategy laid out in the agreement, angering those in the U.S. who will not want to wait four years.
"The way this is portrayed right now, it's President Trump against the entire world, he's the only person who's trying to destroy the planet," Myron Ebell, the former head of Trump’s transition team for the Environmental Protection Agency, told the Examiner. "Once the Senate voted, it would be the Senate's responsibility.
"I think actually it's the easiest way to do that; it's a way to share the responsibility rather than taking it all on the White House."
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