Menendez Statement on Trump Admin’s Formal Withdrawal of U.S. from Paris Climate Agreement

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement after the Trump Administration officially initiated the one-year process for the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate agreement. While the President announced his intentions to pullout on June 1, 2017, today was the first opportunity to formally request the United States be removed from the global agreement.    

“Despite more than two years of sounding the alarm, this decision exemplifies how ‘America First’ actually means ‘America Alone’ for President Trump.

“By charging forth with this withdrawal, the Trump Administration has once again thumbed its nose at our allies, turned a blind eye to the facts, and further politicized the world’s greatest environmental challenge. This decision will go down as one of the worst examples of President Trump’s willful abdication of U.S. leadership and concession of power over the global economy to China, India and others.

“Turning back the clock on environmental justice and risking our future for the benefit of polluting corporations is not a solution. Not surprisingly, neither is undermining the very consensus that created a global response to climate change in the first place. I join the vast majority of Americans demanding the U.S. reclaim its leadership role in protecting our planet and securing a clean energy future.” 

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