Defiant US governors vow to uphold climate act

Three Democratic governors have said they will not let the United States back away from a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, despite Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from an international pact.
“This is an insane move by this president,” California governor Jerry Brown said, blasting the decision as “deviant behaviour from the highest office in the land”.

Mr Brown joined governor Jay Inslee of Washington state and Andrew Cuomo of New York to form the US Climate Alliance to uphold the Paris deal, a pact involving nearly 200 nations aimed at slowing the warming of the planet. The three states already belong to an emissions reduction pact of states and cities worldwide, but Thursday’s action marked a direct stand against the Trump administration and a formal commitment to upholding the targets of the Paris agreement.

Connecticut governor Dan Malloy and Virginia’s Terry McAuliffe also expressed interest in joining the new alliance. “We governors are going to step into this cockpit and fly the plane,” Mr Inslee said.
“The president wants to ground it – we’re going to fly it.” Mr Trump formally announced his decision to leave the historic international agreement after months of teasing the action.

He criticised the pact as a job-killer that put the United States as an unfair advantage. It may be years, however, before the country can formally exit the deal, but Mr Trump said he will immediately halt implementation. He said he would consider re-entry if the US could get a better deal.

Republican politicians and representatives of the coal industry cheered Mr Trump’s action. “President Trump’s courageous decision to exit the Paris Accord recognises that the United States is not legally bound to an Obama-era agreement that set unrealistic emissions targets at the expense of billions of American taxpayer dollars without the approval of Congress,” said Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, who joined nine other states in urging Mr Trump to leave the agreement.