Nearly 200 countries signed 2015 Paris accord
The United States staying in the Paris accord would demonstrate the leadership required to help states reduce their carbon emissions, was the message two Republican governors sent to US Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Wednesday.
Vermont Governor Philip Scott and Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker urged Perry to ensure the US does not withdraw from the 2015 agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in an effort to slow global warming.
“There are shared costs that need to be addressed to cut carbon pollution,” the governors wrote in their letter to Perry, former governor of Texas. “It also allows us to maintain our global economic leadership.”
Asked by Reuters for a comment on the letter, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department did not immediately respond.
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Scott and Baker join a number of European officials, over a dozen governors and as many state attorneys general urging the Trump administration to stay in the agreement.
During the 2016 US presidential election, then-candidate Trump suggested he would pull the United States out of the Paris accord.
So far, two meetings where Perry and other officials were to discuss the US involvement in the agreement have been cancelled.
Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon along with EPA head Scott Pruitt have pushed for the US to withdraw from the accord. At a press conference last month in New York, Perry said he thought the US should “renegotiate” the agreement.
Last week, the White House said President Trump would announce a decision after he returns from the Group of Seven summit in Italy at the end of May.
Nearly 200 countries signed the 2015 Paris agreement.