Paris Climate Talks: Who Won?

According to the Sierra Club, radical green environmentalists won in Paris. The organization tweeted “Fossil Fuels now have an expiration date.” But according to everyone else, even the New York Times, the agreement reached in Paris is “essentially voluntary.”

That means that emissions caps, progress reviews, contributions to the climate fund are all voluntary. There will also be no international oversight of any voluntary progress.

How do fossil fuels have an expiration date again?

To be sure, what was agreed upon in Paris does pose some threat. Being that the entire agreement is voluntary, President Obama will now attempt to pursue the voluntary commitments without Senate approval. The United States Senate is required to ratify any international treaty. However, being that this agreement is technically voluntary, President Obama will attempt to fulfill his commitment to the radical left without Senate ratification.

In addition, radical environmentalists are now pushing forward with their agenda with new found vigor. The aforementioned Sierra Club has announced its next plan is to stop the extraction of all fossil fuels and coal from the Earth at the very start. That means prohibitions on drilling for oil and natural gas, all out bans on coal mining, and economic catastrophe for the United States and the western world. The movement is called “Keep it in the Ground.”

The federal government receives $10 billion annually from oil and gas revenues. In Santa Barbara alone, due to the shutting down of two major pipelines, the city’s education system will lose an estimated $24.1 million, while the county fire department could lose $4.6 million.

You can Keep it in the Ground, but only if you keep basic human necessities like schooling and fire control in the ground too.

Who won the Paris talks remains uncertain, but if initiatives like Keep it in the Ground continue to gain traction, the American people will certainly be the losers.