Trump justified the decision by citing an estimate that the Paris Accord could kill 2.7 million jobs by 2025<\/b>
\nMichigan environmentalists howled Thursday at President Donald Trump\u2019s decision to pull out of the historic Paris climate pact, while defenders countered that the environment won\u2019 t be harmed by the move.
Trump justified the decision by citing a National Economic Research Associates estimate that restrictions from the Paris Accord could kill as many as an estimated 2.7 million jobs by 2025.
\u201cThis includes 440,000 fewer manufacturing jobs \u2014 not what we need \u2014 believe me, this is not what we need \u2014 including automobile jobs, and the further decimation of vital American industries on which countless communities rely, \u201d the president said in a White House Rose Garden speech.
The biggest fury came from environmentalists, who argued Trump\u2019s decision would harm the state and curtail more sustained job growth. They are disappointed Trump won\u2019 t abide by an agreement that would force the United States to move toward renewable energy and away from fossil fuels.
Climate change has already hit Michigan and the agricultural industry with one unseasonably warm February that resulted in major damage to the state\u2019s apple and cherry crops, plus one drought that hit crops such as corn in other parts of the state, said Mike Berkowitz, legislative and political director of the Lansing-based Sierra Club Michigan chapter.
\u201cI think we\u2019 ve have been disproportionately disadvantaged because of climate change, \u201d Berkowitz said. \u201cFor the past few years, we\u2019 ve had major disruption to apple crops, our cherry crops, which are huge industries in Michigan. And climate change is making weather patterns more extreme and causing more issues with our crops and affecting our tourism, natural resources and our agriculture industry.\u201d
Trump\u2019s decision will hurt renewable energy jobs that are the wave of the future, Berkowitz said. Solar and wind energy jobs are growing 12 times faster than the U. S. economy, according to an Environmental Defense Fund report, while the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects wind turbine service technicians will be a fast-growing growing occupation in the country through 2024.
\u201cOn top of that, these jobs also protect the planet, \u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a win-win on all aspects.\u201d
The announcement had reverberations in the auto industry. Electric carmaker Tesla Inc. founder and CEO Elon Musk said he would quit forums advising Trump.
But General Motors Co. Chairman and CEO Mary Barra will continue to serve as part of the president\u2019s Strategic and Policy Forum. GM said in a Thursday statement it provides the company \u201ca seat at an important table to contribute to a constructive dialogue about key policy issues.\u201d
Former Ford Motor Co. CEO and President Mark Fields was part of Trump\u2019s manufacturing council, but is no longer serving amid Ford\u2019s recent management changes. It\u2019s unclear what the White House will do with the spot and if Ford will keep the seat with a new representative.
GM and Ford also said they remain committed to the environment.
\u201cWe believe climate change is real, and remain deeply committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in our vehicles and our facilities, \u201d Ford said in its statement. \u201cOur commitment to sustainability is why we\u2019 re investing so heavily in electrification and adding 13 new electrified vehicles to our line-up.\u201d
GM said it won\u2019 t waiver from its environmental commitments.
\u201cInternational agreements aside, we remain committed to creating a better environment. We publicly advocate for climate action and awareness and remain the only automaker to have signed the Ceres Climate Declaration and one of the first companies to sign the American Business Act on Climate Pledge, \u201d the Detroit-based automaker said in a statement.
Trump said he decided to withdraw from the accord by 2020 because it is \u201cin America\u2019s best interests\u201d and \u201cwon\u2019 t matter much to the environment\u201d since the agreement was only projected to reduce the planet\u2019s temperature by two-tenths of a degree Celsius by 2100.
\u201cThis is the latest example of Washington entering into an agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries, \u201d Trump said, \u201cleaving American workers, who I love, and taxpayers to absorb the cost in terms of lost jobs, lower wages, shuddered factories and vastly diminished economic reduction.\u201d
Jason Hayes, director of environmental policy for the free-market-oriented Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, said he would have preferred that the president submit the Paris accord for an up-or-down vote in the Senate because it is a binding treaty, not a mere agreement as former President Barack Obama argued. But withdrawing from the according is the right move, he said.
Despite concerns from critics, Trump\u2019s decision won\u2019 t hurt the environment, Hayes said. An Environmental Protection Agency report earlier this year found the United States had reduced greenhouse gas emissions 9 percent from 2005 to 2014 \u2014 much of it by moving to the use of natural gas, he said.
\u201cWe were achieving reductions without imposing a treaty on ourselves, \u201d Hayes said.
By contrast, the Paris Accord committed the United States to specific cuts in greenhouse gases and increased the reductions every five years. This reduced America\u2019s ability to use cleaner-coal technology that emits pollutants at the same lower levels as natural gas, Hayes said.
The accord would have forced the country to move toward adopting more toward solar and wind energy, whose higher costs are mostly reduced through heavy government subsidies, he said.
But Trump is contradicting the wishes of most Americans and an agreement signed by more than 190 nations in 2015, said Kate Madigan, energy and climate policy specialist for the Michigan Environmental Council.
\u201cMoving toward renewable energy and moving off of fossil fuels are good for Michigan, are good for jobs, \u201d Madigan said. \u201cLeaving the climate agreement will weaken the fight against climate change and will threaten Michigan\u2019s tourism industry.\u201d
\u201cThe fact that he is backing out of that agreement sends a really sad signal to the rest of the world about where our country is and how seriously we take these kinds of agreements, \u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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