GOP chairman blasts Paris climate accord

The chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee says the climate change accord adopted in Paris on Saturday will do little to change the status quo.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said the agreement is no different from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change adopted 18 years ago.

{mosads}“The news remains the same. This agreement is no more binding than any other ‘agreement’ from any conference of the parties over the last 21 years,” Inhofe said in a Saturday statement.

“Senate leadership has already been outspoken in its positions that the United States is not legally bound to any agreement setting emissions targets or any financial commitment to it without approval by Congress.”

Inhofe, an outspoken doubter of the human role in climate change, has worked in recent months to undermine the agreement and demand that it be submitted to the Senate for approval, which it would not get.

In his Saturday statement, he criticized many aspects of the deal, including his contention that nations like China and India, two of the largest greenhouse gas emitters, will not be held to high standards.

He also hit the pact for the fact that many countries’ emissions reductions pledges do not say how they will meet them, and for setting arbitrary international goals.

Inhofe reiterated his anger for the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Council on Environmental Quality did not agree to testify at his committee on the Paris conference.

“The Senate EPW Committee will continue oversight of the president’s climate agenda and the final Paris climate ‘agreement,’” he said. “Many questions have remained unanswered since the administration refused to testify in October to its plans to meet emissions reduction targets.”