http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/trade-tpp-climate-change-paul-ryan-20150610Paul Ryan Adds Amendment To Trade Bill To Block Climate Deals
A provision seeks to bar the president from using trade to act on climate.
By Clare Foran
June 10, 2015 If House Republicans get their way, president Obama won't be able to use any trade pact to strike a deal on climate change.
Late Tuesday evening, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin offered up an amendment to a customs bill that would "ensure that trade agreements do not require changes to U.S. law or obligate the United States with respect to global warming or climate change."
The customs bill is intended to amend so-called "fast-track" trade legislation that could see a House vote as early as this Friday. "Fast-track" would allow Congress an up-or-down vote on any trade deals negotiated by the White House.
The trade legislation sets out negotiating priorities that Congress expects the White House to abide by when striking international trade deals. House Republicans have promised to reject any deal that does not meet the objectives.
Environmentalists are up-in-arms over the provision, arguing that it sends exactly the wrong message at a time when action to curb climate change is more necessary than ever to stave off the most devastating impacts of a warming Earth.
But Ryan, the one-time vice presidential candidate, has worked hard to win Republican support for the trade bill. Doug Andres, a spokesman for the House Committee on Ways and Means, said that the climate change amendment acts is intended as an olive branch for House Republicans fearful that the president might use his trade negotiating power to take action on climate change.
Andres added that the climate change provision was added in response to concerns raised by the congressional delegation from West Virginia, a coal-rich state heavily dependent on fossil fuel extraction.
Greg Dolan, a spokesman for West Virginia Rep. David McKinley, said that the congressman did not specifically ask for the amendment. But McKinley has previously warned that the president could use "fast-track" to advance a radical environmental agenda.
"If given this "fast-track" authority what could President Obama include in a trade agreement? He could mandate a reduction in the use of natural gas and coal at home and abroad, implement his controversial climate change agenda, and impose radical environmentalist regulations," McKinley wrote in an op-ed in a West Virginia newspaper in February.
A spokesman for Rep. Alex Mooney of West Virginia similarly said that the congressman did not request the amendment. A spokesman for Rep. Evan Jenkins did not return a request for comment.
Environmentalists—many of whom oppose the trade deals to begin with—quickly attempted to mobilize a counterpunch. The Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council sent a joint letter to House members on Wednesday flagging the amendment and urging a "no" vote on the customs bill and "fast-track."
"We need global trade deals to do their part in the fight against climate change by eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, and this new language would prevent that entirely," said Karthik Ganapathy, a spokesman for grassroots environmental group 350.org, adding that the provision might ultimately sink the effort to pass the trade bill by eroding Democratic support.
Progressive Democrats, labor unions and environmentalists strongly oppose "fast-track," warning that the sweeping international deals the president is currently working to negotiate could erode key environmental and labor safeguards and even worsen climate change.
Obama, however, sees the completion of the trade deals as critical to his economic legacy. The White House along with the U.S. Trade Representative have fought hard to cast the deals as beneficial to the environment, touting the fact that they have been negotiated to restrict illegal wildlife trafficking and fishing.
The president wants to see Congress pass "fast-track" legislation to ensure that any eventual trade deal would not be subject to a barrage of amendments in Congress. But the road to passage has not been smooth.
The White House would not comment on the amendment. The U.S. Trade Representative did not return multiple requests for comment.
"Fast-track" has also met with fierce criticism from some House conservatives who say that greenlighting the trade deal could give the president unchecked power.
When asked if the amendment had been added as a sweetener to lure hold-out Republicans to sign onto the trade bill, Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, a supporter of the trade push and a member of the whip team, said he was not familiar with the amendment but noted it would make sense for that to be the intent.
"Yes certainly there are fears right now that this could be used to give Obama unilateral authority. So we're working right now to ease those fears," Cole said.
