House OKs bill to keep US in Paris climate deal

GOP opposition likely to doom measure in Senate

WASHINGTON – It’s not as bold as the Green New Deal, but House Democrats passed climate legislation Thursday that would prevent the Trump administration from exiting the international Paris Agreement aimed at global warming.

“It’s time to end denial about (climate change) and start listening to the facts. This is about science, science, science,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on the House floor Thursday before the vote. “An overwhelming number of Americans know this is a crisis, they know that human behavior has an impact on it and they want us to act.”

The House passed the Climate Action Now Act 231-190, largely along party lines. That’s almost certainly as far as the bill will get. Senate Republicans, who have shown little willingness to break ranks with President Donald Trump on energy policy, are unlikely to take up the House bill.

The Climate Action Now bill would bar the administration from using federal funds to withdraw from the international treaty, which Trump called “onerous” and “harsh” during a Rose Garden news conference in 2017. Trump said America would withdraw from the agreement, but the United States can’t officially do so until 2020.

The legislation would require the administration to develop and submit to Congress a plan that meets its obligation under the Paris accord to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. That commitment calls on the USA to cut emissions warming the planet by 26% to 28% below 2005 levels.

The measure is considerably less ambitious than the Green New Deal, the sweeping proposal from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., that calls for shifting completely from fossil fuels to renewable energy in the coming years and prescribes a broad platform that included free housing, medical coverage and higher education for all Americans.

Democratic House leaders are lukewarm on the Green New Deal; some are worried that its hard turn to the left could repel voters in 2020.

“Speaker Pelosi knows very likely that to have a vote on the Green New Deal could cost the Democrats the majority,” said Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga.

“This is about science, science, science.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi