How To Make A Useless US Presence At Climate Talks More Insulting? Send Scott Pruitt!
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“Resentment toward an insult-hurling, free-riding U.S. president is sure to boil over,” said Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House climate change adviser. “Trump is going to be vilified in no uncertain terms.”
The Trump administration, for its part, will also display something of a split personality. Thomas A. Shannon, undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department and a respected career diplomat, will lead a small American delegation. Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, expressed interest in leading the American negotiating team and may still attend the conference in some capacity, according to several people familiar with the administration’s deliberations. The E.P.A. did not respond to questions about the administrator’s plans.
Climate change activists said they expected to see Trump administration officials championing fossil fuels at the climate conference, an unwelcome position among the thousands of delegates and observers who say the world must move away from polluting sources of energy. But, they said, the presence of Mr. Pruitt, who says he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming, would be particularly provocative.
“The message would be, ‘We don’t care.’ The world would see an E.P.A. administrator who doesn’t even believe climate change is real,” said Carol Browner, who led the agency under Bill Clinton.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/climate/trump-paris-accord.html