Paris Accord is toothless, so quit your whining

In the Saturday editorial section, there were a lot of opinions concerning the Paris Accord. So let us consider that this agreement is not a treaty, to be so Congress would have to approve it as one.

The last such attempt was Kyoto during the Clinton Administration, and it failed by a vote of 49 to 1. It was clear the same would have happened for the Paris agreement. Therefore Obama regulated by executive order, consequently these regulations have been overturned by the current administration.

Another point is that the agreement has no enforcement provisions and that each country can set its own standards and timelines. India, for example, said it will increase coal use by three times over the next 20 years!

The Paris Agreement is therefore little more than a feel-good environmental waste of time as there is no incentive for any nation to comply. America is not beholden to Europe or blotted international bureaucracies telling us what we can or cannot do, nor is it fair to our businesses or taxpayers.

We are a great and prosperous country because of freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution and system of government, and the idea of individual effort instead of Euro-socialist collectivism. We are also an inventive country and can regulate ourselves. Many states including Florida are investing in renewable energy and will continue to do so as solar and wind become financially feasible.

It is true that 97 percent of climate scientists agree that the planet is warming. What they don't agree on is how much is naturally occurring and how much human behavior has to do with it. In conclusion, it is doubtful that our economy will fail or that the planet will shrivel up and die because we backed out of some toothless international environmental agreement.

This story was originally published June 7, 2017 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Paris Accord is toothless, so quit your whining."