Trump’s exit from Paris Agreement endangers US clean energy leadership, CEO says
President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement endangers the United States’ leadership in clean energy technologies, Johnson Controls chief Alex Molinaroli told CNBC on Friday.
Molinaroli appeared on “ Squawk Box” a day after Trump said the U.S. would withdrawal from the worldwide agreement to curb carbon emissions. The president said he would seek to start new talks for a “fair” deal on controlling emissions.
“You know, it’s not going to affect Johnson Controls,” said Molinaroli. “I’m just more concerned about the United States. You know, the leadership position that it has around technologies, around these technologies. It is just seceding that leadership position,” he said.
Molinaroli, who was one of several CEOs who urged Trump to stay in the Paris Agreement, said the world is investing in clean energy technologies. He said coal is not the future.
“We don’t live in the world of 100 years ago where the United States was the only economy in a closed economy. Market forces include what other people are doing around the world. It doesn’t just include what’s happening in the United States,” he said.
Also on “Squawk Box,” the chairman and CEO of Ohio-based coal company Murray Energy praised Trump’s decision, saying it will save jobs.
“President Trump was very courageous, he was very prudent in withdrawing entirely from the fraudulent global climate agreement in Paris,” said Robert Murray, a routine supporter of Trump’s energy deregulation efforts. “He already killed the Clean Power Plan of the most dangerous president we’ve ever had, Barack Obama.”
The Clean Power Plan was an Obama administration policy aimed at combating climate change, which Trump scrapped earlier this year.
Murray said it’s hard to predict how Trump’s decision will affect coal but said coal will participate in the United State’s growth.
Originally published at https://www.cnbc.com on June 2, 2017.