by Steve Milloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As appearing in the Washington Times
The House Republicans have renamed Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “America COMPETES Act” as the “America CONCEDES Act.” But COMPETES is worse than that. It should be called the “America TRICKED and BETRAYED Act.”
COMPETES, short for “Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology, and Economic Strength,” is being advertised as making America more competitive with China. But COMPETES does nothing of the sort. Instead, the bill makes us perilously dependent on China. And it does this in a backdoor fashion that was missed even by House Republicans.
COMPETES contains a provision stating, “It is the sense of Congress … that the United States should … implement the Paris Agreement that significantly advances global climate ambition on mitigation, adaptation, and support.”
House Republicans have erroneously concluded that the provision merely urges America to abide by the Paris Agreement. It’s an honest mistake. Unless you have followed the climate war over the past 20 years, you might also miss the potential legal and policy significance of that provision.
