//  6/4/17  //  Topic Update

The Trump administration will likely withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement, with a final decision to be made in the coming days (New York Times, Reuters, The Hill).

• No final decision has been made, and there are factions in the administration with differing views (The Hill).
• Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement itself may do little harm, but withdrawing from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change would be destructive, argues Ann Carlson at Take Care.
• At the New York Times, Jasmine C. Lee and Adam Pearce explain how other countries may respond, and how the climate may be affected.
• Some climate activists and advocates have suggested that withdrawing from the agreement would actually benefit the fight against climate change (WaPo).
• Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) criticizes the expected withdrawal in The Hill.
• In the Washington Post, Benjamin Sanderson suggests that withdrawing from the agreement would primarily harm the United States.
• At Dorf on Law, Take Care contributor Michael Dorf argues that President Trump’s plan to withdraw from the Paris agreement is consistent with the position of the Republican Party.
• Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, urged President Trump not to withdraw (The Hill).
• Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has threatened to leave President Trump’s Strategic and Policy Council if the administration withdraws from the agreement (The Hill).
• Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to review the Clean Power Plan (E&E News).
• President Obama issued a brief, but scathing, response to President Trump’s decision to depart the agreement (WaPo).
• A leaked statement between 28 EU member states and China confirms their commitment to the Paris accord, as well as their plan to deepen cooperation on climate change in the absence of American leadership (ClimateChangeNews).
• The U.S. cannot formally withdraw from the agreement until 2020, and the decision to withdraw could be changed any time until November 2019, but those who recognize the threat of climate change cannot afford to sit idly by, argues Dan Farber at LegalPlanet.
• How President Trump withdraws the U.S. from the Paris Agreement may matter as much as the decision to withdraw, notes Ann Carlson at Take Care.
• Leaving the accord will take time; William Maudlin outlined the process at the Wall Street Journal.
• Leaving the Paris agreement is a terrible, harmful idea, writes Eli Savit at Take Care from mid-May.
• President Trump has thrown the world into harm’s way, and his decision will have ripple effects throughout the United States—increased respiratory and other health issues, flooding, drinking water contamination, among others, writes Alice Hill at Lawfare.
• Adam White argues that the litigation risk of activist judges striking down regulation in light of the Paris agreement, as some accused the D.C. Circuit of in the Obama era, might be a rational basis to withdraw from the agreement (Lawfare).
• This morning, before President Trump made his announcement, Ann Carlson at LegalPlanet collected her past commentary on the Paris Agreement.
• The New York Times editorial board criticized the decision, calling it “disgraceful” (NYT).
• In a Washington Post op-ed, John Podesta argues that because actually withdrawing from the agreement will take until 2020, President Trump has drawn the battle lines for the 2018 and 2020 elections.
• The Trump administration has several international legal avenues for exit, writes Duncan Hollis at Opinio Juris.

Under Administrator Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency has become significantly less accessible to journalists,argues Emily Atkin in the New Republic.

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced a 90-day delay of an Obama-era regulation on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling (The Hill). 

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