FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 4, 2019
Statement by CIEL President Carroll Muffett:
“The announcement today that the Trump Administration will withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement is another regrettable example of Mr. Trump’s approach to governance: deny reality, undermine collective action, and commit outrages in the name of corporate profits. The decision is as futile as it is destructive. With California burning, south Texas recovering from ever more frequent floods, and communities from Puerto Rico to Bahamas to Mozambique facing years-long recovery from the ravages of climate-fueled storms, Mr. Trump’s decision will make neither the climate crisis nor mounting global awareness of that crisis disappear. It will not stop the Trump Administration or its oil industry allies from being held accountable for that crisis in courts across the country and around the world. And it will not stop other countries, US states, or the reality-based community from confronting the urgent global threat of climate change. What Trump’s action will do is commit the United States to falling ever further behind in the clean energy transition and the accelerating race to a new, more sustainable economy. And it will further erode global confidence in the United States’ ability to make, keep, and deliver on its international commitments – climate or otherwise.”