Oklahoma Congressman Frank Lucas is critical of President Biden’s move to rejoin the Paris Climate Change agreement, the one abandoned during the Trump presidency.
In a statement Thursday, Rep. Lucas, the ranking Republican on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee said the Paris Agreement is not the way to address global greenhouse gas emissions.
“It commits the U.S. to a tremendous financial burden while doing nothing to enforce greenhouse gas reductions by other participants,” said Lucas in a statement.
He said despite pledges to the agreement, emissions from China and India continue to grow.
“Even worse, it was found that China significantly underreported its emissions in the lead-up to the agreement taking effect, making it hard to trust its current reports. The data is clear: while global emissions increased by nearly 24% between 2005 and 2018, U.S. emissions declined by 10% in that same time period,” added Rep. Lucas.
“Simply put: costly global pledges are not the path forward. Instead, we should be focusing on developing the tools needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, like advanced nuclear energy, carbon capture, and greater energy storage capacity.”
The GOP congressman who is a farmer and rancher from western Oklahoma said investing in innovation to reduce emissions and lower energy costs is a better step.
Source: Lucas press release