Post-accord U.S. needs debate over our future

The controversial accord was signed during the last year of the Obama administration, and then-candidate Donald Trump vowed to pull the U.S. from the pledge to reduce greenhouse emissions.

The long, tedious process of a formal withdrawal is now under way.

Nicolas Loris, an economist who studies energy policy for The Heritage Foundation, says the “policy cloud” looming over the issue is the claim that carbon dioxide is a pollutant along with other greenhouse gas emissions.

“This is not because they have any direct impact on human health and the environment,” Loris tells OneNewsNow, “but because of their impact on climate change and global warming. And this gives any agency and any future administration moving forward essentially carte blanche to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, from the manufacturing sector, and certainly from the energy sector, as well as from the agricultural sector."

In that regard, without a reconsideration of the endangerment finding, Loris believes there is still potential for a lot of “economic damage” that he says would be “devoid” of any climate benefit from future administrations.