(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accords.
Trump signed the order, which is titled “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements,” in front of a crowd of supporters at the Capital One Arena.
Typically called the Paris Agreement, it has long been a source of contention for various presidents. An international treaty on climate change, former President Barack Obama first signed an executive order to join the Paris Agreement in 2016. At that time, he pledged $3 billion to its initiatives.
Trump then withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in 2019, with former President Joe Biden issuing an executive order rejoining it upon taking office in 2020.
The latest executive order states that America’s institution of “sensible” environmental policies should be a “model” for other countries to learn from. It added that the financial burden of such international environmental agreements should no longer rest on the taxpayers.
“It is the policy of my Administration to put the interests of the United States and the American people first in the development and negotiation of any international agreements with the potential to damage or stifle the American economy,” the order said. “These agreements must not unduly or unfairly burden the United States.”
The order also withdraws the United States from the U.S. International Climate Finance Plan, which focuses on “international climate finance.”
This executive order was just the first of Trump’s administration’s first priorities, namely, to make America affordable and energy-dominant again.
The President also plans to declare a national energy emergency to help unleash the gas and oil industries.
“We will drill baby drill,” Trump said during his Inauguration Day speech. “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.”
Other energy executive orders expected Monday evening include ending the Green New Deal and revoking the electric vehicle mandate.
