Washington
The president, who promised to “cancel” Paris during the election campaign, has faced calls from oil, gas and even some coal companies for the United States to remain a party to an accord endorsed by nearly 200 countries. But many conservatives and climate change doubters have continued to urge Trump to keep his election pledge and quit the agreement.
The White House has suggested that Trump would make his decision about the fate of the Paris agreement by late May, when G7 leaders are expected to gather in Taormina, Italy. But a decision could also emerge from a meeting of his top advisers that was postponed on Tuesday and could take place as early as next week, according to Republican lobbyists.
The meeting — whose new date, for now, remains unclear — was charged with offering recommendations to Trump, the White House said. But spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Tuesday that while the advisers “wanted to have that conversation,” it had been put off due to “scheduling conflicts,” including several top officials traveling with the president to Wisconsin for an event.
Those officials are themselves divided.
The Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt, said last week he believed the U.S. should “exit” the deal, which is seen as a key part of President Barack Obama’s legacy. Trump’s chief strategist Stephen Bannon is also viewed as an opponent of the agreement.
However, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson argued in his Senate confirmation hearing that the U.S. should maintain a “seat at the table” in international climate talks. Others, including National Economic Council head Gary Cohn, who held a White House meeting about a possible carbon tax, and Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, are also considered supportive of the deal.
At a minimum, said one GOP consultant close to the White House, Trump is likely to cut off contributions Obama was making to the Green Climate Fund under the international accord, a key mechanism by which wealthier developed companies are intended to help developing nations adjust to climate change and adopt clean energy technologies to cut their emissions.
Continued international uncertainty about the Trump administration’s stand has been a source of friction at international summits. At the Group of Seven energy ministerial last week, the United States would not endorse a statement about climate change because the Trump administration has still not laid out a formal policy position.
Meanwhile, a number of industry voices have rallied behind the deal. Tillerson’s former company, ExxonMobil, argued to the White House recently that the U.S. should stay in the agreement and that it does not pose a competitiveness risk to domestic energy industries.
On Monday, Cheniere Energy, the U.S.’s first liquefied natural gas exporter, wrote to White House special assistant to the president for international energy and environment David Banks to similarly argue that “domestic energy companies are better positioned to compete globally if the United States remains a party to the Paris Agreement.”
Even the major coal company Cloud Peak Energy is now supporting the accord.
But Trump faces competing pressure to leave it too. On Tuesday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative advocacy group, released an ad urging Trump to jettison the Paris climate deal. The ad includes footage of Trump on the campaign trail, promising to “cancel” the Paris deal.