Republicans Still Hunting a Way Forward on Landmark Climate Deal

If Republicans are preparing to launch an offensive against the historic climate change agreement the Obama administration struck in Paris last month, they're being awfully quiet about it.
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Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said the Paris agreement is inconvenient to Republicans because it contradicts their favorite talking point that the Obama administration is acting alone to curb emissions in ways that will damage the U.S. economy.  It is also futile, he said.

"It's not like they can do something that can undo Paris," he said.

Even the components of the U.S. pledge to cut emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 appear to be safe from congressional intervention right now.

Looking for the Next Fight
Congress passed Congressional Review Act resolutions late last year to kill EPA's power plant carbon rules, but Obama refused to sign them.  And it seems unlikely that this year's abbreviated legislative session will produce successful legislation to roll back the marquee climate rules when previous efforts to do so have failed.

Opponents of the carbon rules hope to see the courts invalidate them and are seeking a legal stay.  Scott Segal of the legal and lobbying firm Bracewell & Giuliani notes that, if granted, a stay would give Congress more time to act -- possibly under a new president.

But the likely scenario seems to be that the courts will decide the fate of the Clean Power Plan, just as next year's presidential election may decide the fate of U.S. participation in the Paris deal. And Congress has scant control over either.

Meyer said Corker's unwillingness to focus his committee's attention and resources on Paris appears pragmatic.  The Foreign Relations Committee chairman is a moderate who has said human-caused emissions are contributing to warming.

"To me, it says that Corker understands that there's no political traction here to engage Democrats in the way [the committee] did on the Iran issue, for example," he said.  "And he doesn't want to be someone who pursues a partisan-only agenda."

But Segal said Congress may have more tools at its disposal than some believe.  For one thing, the tussle over GCF funding may not be over.  Last month's spending bill does not contain a prohibition on State Department funds going to fill the adaptation and mitigation fund, but neither does it dedicate funding to it.  If the department chooses to redirect funding to the GCF, it may need to ask permission of appropriators, he said.  And that could be another opportunity for lawmakers to demand a say on Paris.

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