McConnell undermines Obama's climate plan with other countries.
In an effort to undermine international negotiations aimed at combating climate change, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is telling other countries not to trust President Obama’s promise to significantly reduce the United States’ carbon emissions.
In a statement released Tuesday, McConnell warned other countries to “proceed with caution” before pledging any carbon emissions reductions to the United Nations, saying the U.S. would likely not be able to meet its own climate goals. The statement came shortly after Obama announced the official U.S. plan to slash the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions as much as 28 percent as part of an international agreement brokered by the U.N.
“Even if the job-killing and likely illegal Clean Power Plan were fully implemented, the United States could not meet the targets laid out in this proposed new plan,” McConnell said, adding that “[O]ur international partners should proceed with caution before entering into a binding, unattainable deal.”
The Majority Leader’s tactic is similar to a recent and slightly more aggressive effort by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) to undermine international negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Earlier this month, Cotton and 46 other Republican senators wrote a letter to the Iranian government warning that it should not trust any deal it strikes with the United States and its international partners, saying that the deal likely would not last past the Obama administration.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/01/3641594/mcconnells-inner-tom-cotton/
