Both Russia and Saudi Arabia’s economy are based on oil. They’re struggling to keep the price of oil high enough to maintain their economies. The only way to keep oil at high prices is to either decrease the amount of oil or increase the demand for oil. The Paris Climate Accord cut back on the demand for oil. Donald Trump has pulled out the Accord, and has had significant personal relations with Russia and Saudi Arabia.
With a bit of googling I find articles on a giant saudi oil company called Aarmco trying to sell on the stock market, and Trump started 8 companies in Saudi Arabia during the campaign.
Also saudi Arabia bought the largest US oil refinery last month.
He’s contradicted his own beliefs multiple times. I doubt his belief is the top reason why he pulled out. He obviously is continuing to look out for his own interests.
Trump (in his stupid speech): “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
The mayor of Pittsburgh (that city that overwhelmingly did not vote for the misleader in chuef) poits out that they will continue to follow the guidelines of the Paris agreement.
He sees negotiating as a balance, very black and white.
One side is pollution, the other side is jobs.
In his mind, the other side gave up X amount of pollution in exchange for Y amount of jobs. In his mind, the rest of the world wants only for us to pollute as little as possible, but American wants only to have the most jobs.
He’s the great negotiator, so thinks “Aha! I can make a ‘better deal’.” So he wants to shift the equation in our direction (as he sees it) – we want to pollute more and save more U.S. jobs.
Of course, this (as so many other issues) is much more nuanced. It is not just the rest of the world, but the U.S. as well that should want to pollute less. We are setting targets for ourselves. The balance also isn’t just his simplistic less pollution leads to fewer jobs either. We’ve found in recent years that changing the nature of our energy usage doesn’t necessarily cost jobs. Sure, we’ve lost some coal jobs, but we’ve also gained solar and wind jobs. There is also a great deal of climate change risk we are only beginning to realize the extent of.
Who knew energy policy was so complicated? Isn’t it comforting to know that Rick Perry is at the helm of the Dept. of Energy?
He did it because the real Barack Obama was for the accord. Policy based on an insecure imbecile’s hurt feewings is the new America. Apologies to all the countries with functioning governments.
As with sanctuary cities, U.S. Mayors are stating that they are not bound by this decision, and will still abide by the agreement.Chicago is one example, the Mayor of Pittsburgh has said something similar.
Is this just the break the Clinton campaign was hoping for?
Or is this kind of comment really irrelevant to the matter under discussion?
I always thought it was, when its incarnation was “…the Romney campaign…” or the “McCain campaign.” But obviously my opinion was in the minority, judging from the enthusiastic use of the tactic.
In looking at it now, I still think it’s irrelevant. But I’m curious about others’ reactions. Maybe I was missing something all those years?
I think he withdrew from the accord for a much simpler reason. Obama did it and therefore it needs to be undone. Trump put no more thought into it than that.
I think it really is that simple. And keep in mind that it was a campaign promise because it’s what his supporters want.
It also has the added benefit of distracting the press & liberals from the Russia stuff. Much better to have people mad at him for fulfilling a campaign promise than for suspected treason.