Trump’s Reasons For Leaving Paris Climate Agreement Just Don’t Add Up

"President Trump railed against the Paris climate agreement in the White House Rose Garden on  Thursday, but it was hard to reconcile his description of the climate accord with the real one.

'As of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the nonbinding Paris accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country,' Trump said — a phrase seeming to contain a logical contradiction. If the agreement is nonbinding, then what burdens can it impose?

And that contradiction gets to the heart of why Trump seemed, on Thursday, not to be arguing against the Paris agreement itself, but rather, against the Obama administration’s pledge under that agreement, in which the United States would cut by the year 2025 its emissions by 26 to 28 percent below their 2005 levels."

Chris Mooney reports for the Washington Post June 1, 2017.

SEE ALSO:

"Fact-Checking President Trump’s Claims On The Paris Climate Change Deal" (Washington Post)

"AP Fact Check: Trump's Shaky Claims On Climate Accord" (AP)

"Trump Misunderstood MIT Climate Research, University Officials Say" (Reuters)

"Fact-Checking Donald Trump's Statement Withdrawing From The Paris Climate Agreement" (PolitiFact)

"FactChecking Trump’s Climate Speech" (FactCheck.org)

"Fact-Checking The Energy Claims In Trump's Paris Agreement Speech" (CNBC)

"Fact Checking Trump’s Paris Agreement Speech" (NBC News)