Wrong turn on climate deal

Candidate Donald Trump campaigned as a savvy businessman who knew how to make deals. Successful businessmen look forward, assessing the future possibilities, never backward.

President Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord in an effort to save coal jobs fails to acknowledge reality. After Trump’s inauguration, even Sen. Mitch McConnell conceded that coal jobs are not returning. Renewable energy now provides more jobs than coal; a continuing job-sector trend line, growth versus decline.

Trump’s withdrawal from the accord didn’t put America first; it put America alone. Now, for the first time since the end of World War II, America is no longer seen as a world leader; it’s all self-inflicted. American influence over markets will begin to erode as other nations begin to realize they don’t need America; Europe is already moving in that direction. Isolationism will cost jobs.

Trump, the businessman failed to recognize the BATNA principle: Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. What is his alternative to the negotiated Paris accord? More than appeasing his political base, I hope. Trump must provide the American people with specifics, not his usual vague generalities. America should make history, not become part of it, or has Trump admitted that American exceptionalism is dead?

This story was originally published July 11, 2017 at 7:28 PM with the headline "Wrong turn on climate deal."