McConnell Warns Countries Against Obama’s UN Climate Plan

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2015 file photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. A congressional stalemate over funding for the Homeland Security Department deepened Thursd... FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2015 file photo, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. A congressional stalemate over funding for the Homeland Security Department deepened Thursday as Senate Democrats blocked action on the bill for a third straight day to protest Republican language on immigration. “This is like Groundhog Day,” Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, complained on the Senate floor after the measure failed to advance. The vote was 52 to 47, eight short of the 60 needed to move ahead. Two procedural votes earlier in the week yielded similar outcomes. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) MORE LESS
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday warned foreign countries against President Obama’s proposal to the United Nations for cut carbon emissions in the United States.

As ThinkProgress noted, McConnell issued a statement criticizing Obama’s “unattainable” plan shortly after the proposal was released.

“Even if the job-killing and likely illegal Clean Power Plan were fully implemented, the United States could not meet the targets laid out in this proposed new plan,” McConnell said in the statement. “Considering that two-thirds of the U.S. federal government hasn’t even signed off on the Clean Power Plan and 13 states have already pledged to fight it, our international partners should proceed with caution before entering into a binding, unattainable deal.”

The Sierra Club accused McConnell of copying Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-AR) attempt to undermine the Iran deal.

“Mitch McConnell has evidently stolen Tom Cotton’s playbook for undermining American leadership in the face of international crises,” Sierra Club President John Coequyt said in a statement, according to The Hill.

Earlier in March, McConnell also told states to ignore the Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. The majority leader wrote in a letter to the National Governors Association that the EPA’s rule to cut emissions goes “far beyond its legal authority.”

“This proposed plan is already on shake legal grounds, will be extremely burdensome and costly, and will not seriously address the global environmental concerns that are frequently raised to justify it,” he said in the letter.

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