If elected, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has said he would re-enter the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office,
However, President Donald Trump could preemptively block this move, Steve Milloy wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
President Barack Obama originally joined the Paris Climate Accord in 2015 by an executive order. Since the Constitution requires the Senate to ratify treaties, the agreement did not carry the force of law.
Obama’s unilateral action meant that Trump in 2017 easily abandoned the agreement with his own executive order. America’s withdrawal was finalized on Nov. 4, 2020.
If election fraud elevates Biden to the presidency, then he could rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, but this time an executive order may make the provisions in the Paris Climate Accord binding on the United States.
“Although there is nothing about the agreement’s terms or the manner in which the U.S. entered it that make it legally binding on the U.S., some green group may find a friendly federal court to produce that result,” Milloy wrote.
Courts could use the same logic that they used to justify keeping in place Obama’s unconstitutional Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
This would force the United States to comply with economy-crippling regulations to “reduce greenhouse-gas emissions at least 26% by 2025.”
America’s sovereignty would be subject to the dictates of international bureaucrats and oligarchs.
Under these unfriendly circumstances, Trump’s best move is to send the Paris Climate Accord to the Senate for a vote on ratification, a process which requires two-thirds approval.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would have to act fast to put the treaty to a vote that would be designed to fail.
“[I]t is unlikely any court could subsequently resurrect a legislatively tossed treaty,” Milloy said.
“Biden would need a winning ratification vote to make the accord binding, which he likely couldn’t get no matter how well Democrats do in Georgia’s January runoffs and the 2022 midterm elections,” he wrote.
