‘America Last,’ Biden Signs Executive Action to rejoin Paris Climate Accord, Imposes Curbs on Oil Industry

The Washington Examiner has more on Biden's newest Executive order:

President Biden, as one of his first moves in office Wednesday, announced the United States intends to reenter the Paris Agreement, the global pact to combat climate change that the Trump administration rejected.

Biden’s action on the first day of his presidency represents a symbolic fulfillment of a core campaign promise, but it amounts to little substantively for now.

His administration submitted a letter of intent to the United Nations on Wednesday for the U.S. to reenter the Paris Agreement, which was negotiated by the Obama administration when Biden was vice president and enacted in 2015.

But under the terms of the pact, Biden needs to wait another 30 days for the U.S. to be officially back in.

“The Biden team could have waited until next week, but to be organized and ready to say on Day 1, 'We are back in,' that does send a strong signal to the rest of the world that climate change will be top priority of the administration,” said Carla Frisch, senior principal at the Rocky Mountain Institute who works on America’s Pledge, an effort from cities, states, and companies to keep the U.S. on track to meet the Paris goals after former President Donald Trump rejected the agreement.

During the campaign, Biden described rejoining the Paris Agreement as a first step.

He wants to meet and exceed the pace of emissions cuts envisioned by the Obama administration in order to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, meaning the the U.S. would balance emissions with measures that take pollution out of the atmosphere.

That's in line with new findings from U.N. scientists in 2018 that the world would need to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 in order to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius or "well below" 2 degrees. The world is on pace for a temperature increase of more than 3 degrees Celsius this century.

The U.S. might have an outside chance of achieving the Obama-era Paris target of reducing emissions 26% to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025, but only inadvertently because of a once-in-a-century pandemic that shut down the economy and slammed demand for transportation fuels, causing a record drop in emissions in 2020. Emissions are expected to rise again this year as the economy recovers.

Despite the likely failure in achieving the Obama goal, activists want to see a stricter commitment for 2030 in order for Biden to reestablish credibility lost under Trump.

Criticism of these executive orders has come in quickly from Republicans concerned about Biden putting American interests secondary.

NBC News has more on Ted Cruz's objection to rejoining the accords:

Senator Ted Cruz repeated Donald Trump's America-centric climate rhetoric as President Joe Biden rejoined the Paris agreement on his first day in office.

Cruz, R-Texas, said in a tweet late Wednesday that by returning America to the multinational climate accord, Biden has indicated he was more interested "in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh."

When Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the agreement, the biggest international effort to curb climate change, in 2017 he said: "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris."

Trump said the accord disadvantaged the U.S. — part of his broader strategy to loosen restrictions on domestic oil, gas and coal producers. The U.S. is the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter behind China.

America is no longer a priority to our "elected" leaders.