Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that requires the President to take environment policy actions previously committed to under the Paris Climate Agreement.

Highlights:

• Prohibits the appropriation of any federal funds to take action to advance the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement (Sec. 3). 

• Requires the President to develop and submit a plan both to the public and to Congress, for the United States to meet previously determined contribution under the Agreement that details (Sec. 4):

• How the U.S. will achieve, by 2025, an economy-wide target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent below U.S. emission levels in 2005,;

• How the U.S. will use the Paris Agreement’s transparency provisions to confirm that other parties to the Agreement with major economies are fulfilling their announced contributions to the Agreement;

• How the U.S. will use diplomatic tools to encourage and assist other parties to the Agreement to fulfill their announced contributions;

• How the Paris Agreement’s loss and damage provisions would affect U.S. infrastructure resiliency; and

• How the plan takes into consideration populations, regions, industries, and constituencies that could be affected by nationally determined contributions including:

• American jobs, wages, and pay;

• The cost of energy, such as electricity and gasoline, for consumers; and

• The ability to develop and deploy new, innovative, domestically-produced technologies.

• Requires the President to produce a report that examines the effect of the Paris Agreement on clean energy job development in rural communities (Sec. 5). 

• Requires the President to enter into a contract with the National Academy of Sciences to produce a report that examines the potential impacts of withdrawal by the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on the global economic competitiveness of the U.S. economy and its workers, no later than 6 months after this Act goes into effect (Sec. 6). 

• Defines “Paris Agreement” as the decision by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s 21st Conference of Parties in Paris, France, adopted December 12, 2015 (Sec. 7).

Full Bill Text

Full Bill Text