U.S. Energy and Climate Policy: A Few Thoughts on a Path Forward Internationally and at Home

Richard Rosenzweig

There is great concern about the direction the Trump Administration and Republican Congress will take on climate policy. Its first consequential decision on the international front could be what to do about the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The Administration’s pronouncements about Paris have been ambiguous, but many fear it will scuttle the treaty.

We saw this movie 16 years ago.  In the first 60 days of his Administration, President George W. Bush pulled the US out of the Kyoto Protocol. This proved to be a mistake. Not because Kyoto was a good agreement. In fact, as I have written extensively, Kyoto was a bad deal for the United States. But rather than identifying many of the objectionable parts of the agreement and suggesting alternatives, the Bush Administration sent a terse letter to the US Senate stating its intent to pull out of the treaty.

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