Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, Americans care about clean air; Americans care about clean water; and the U.S. needs to be at the table for these discussions as we move into a global economy. But, Mr. Speaker, a bad deal is worse than no deal at all. Make no mistake, H.R. 9 is a bad deal. Almost no countries are in compliance with the Paris deal now, let alone its future requirements. I am going to have some breaking news here: China is not a developing country. China emits over 30 percent of the world's pollution. But not China, not India, not Australia, not the EU, and not even Canada are in compliance with the current terms. The U.N. Emissions Gap Report estimates U.N. countries will have to triple their efforts to meet the Paris deal commitments. This deal imposes stricter requirements on the United States than other countries. It requires significant and economically damaging carbon emission reductions from the United States without requiring those same requirements from China, from India, and from other developing countries. A true international agreement to address carbon emissions would require actionable commitments from all the countries and would have included a mechanism for enforcement. China has only committed to raising its nonfossil fuel share of its economy to 20 percent by 2030 and a commitment that CO<INF>2</INF> emissions will peak in 2030. That is not including their financing of essentially unregulated coal plants all over the developing world. U.S.…”