Oui will $ave planet!
FORMER MAYOR Michael Bloomberg will kick in $4.5 million this year to cover the United States’ commitment to the Paris climate pact, he said Sunday — as he ripped President Trump’s top environmental official for abandoning his job of protecting the Earth.
Bloomberg, in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” said he’ll cut a check to pay the American share of the costs of the multinational climate change agreement, after Trump pulled out of the Paris deal last year and scrapped the payments.
“America made a commitment, and as an American, if the government’s not going to do it, we all have responsibility,” Bloomberg said.
“I’m going to send them a check for the monies that America had promised to the organization as though they got it from the federal government.”
The payment will amount to $4.5 million this year, but the billionaire former mayor said he’s still holding out hope that Trump will reverse course and rejoin the Paris agreement before he has to write another check next year.
“He should change his mind and say, ‘Look, there really is a problem here. America is part of the problem. America is a big part of the solution and we should go in and help the world stop a potential disaster,’ ” said Bloomberg, who made the announcement on Earth Day.
Bloomberg also tore into Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, saying he’s not doing the job he’s supposed to be doing.
“His job is to protect the environment, and he has walked away 100% from that,” Bloomberg said, adding Pruitt has decided “‘The environment doesn’t need protection. I’m going to try to protect jobs.’ “That’s not his job.”
The EPA under Pruitt has gutted environmental regulations and efforts to combat climate change.
Pruitt has also drawn scrutiny for his high spending on travel and possible conflicts of interest in his ties to industry.
“His policies are not good for the world. To debunk science and walk away from it is just ridiculous,” Bloomberg said. “Ninety-nine percent of all scientists after peer review say that something is happening in the world. It’s changing. Everybody that looks outside their window can see that we have less snow here and more snow there and bigger storms and a whole bunch of things, that the oceans are rising and things are changing and you can’t deny that.” Trump’s legislative affairs director, Marc Short, said Sunday he still has full confidence in the EPA chief, after it was revealed he rented a Capitol Hill condo from the wife of an energy lobbyist for $50 a night — only paying on nights he actually stayed in the condo — and met with the lobbyist on official matters. “Scott Pruitt’s doing a phenomenal job, and the President’s happy with him,” Short said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”