Dont just blame Trump for quitting the Paris deal blame the Republican Party
by Andrew Prokop at Vox
https://www.vox.com/2017/6/1/15726726/trump-paris-climate-agreement-republicans
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President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement has been portrayed in some press coverage as a decision driven either by his personal idiosyncrasies or the policy agenda of White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. And while there’s an element of truth to that, it misses the big picture.
The reality is that this isn’t just a story about Trump — it’s a story about the Republican Party and the conservative movement, which has adopted a rock-solid, widespread consensus in opposition to any serious action aimed at US reducing carbon emissions. This has become a bedrock belief of the modern GOP.
While we can’t know if any other Republican president elected in 2016 would have for sure withdrawn from the Paris agreement, many institutional actors within the GOP and the conservative movement — from members of Congress (including the Senate majority leader), to think tanks, to activist groups, to media outlets, to conservative donors (including many with fossil fuel wealth) — strongly support this move and have in fact been urging Trump to make it.
Furthermore, even leading Republicans who might have supported sticking to the Paris deal — it is, after all, non-binding — would have likely supported an agenda of weakening environmental regulations and taken little if any action aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
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