Lucas Questions EPA’s Role in International Climate Agreement

Washington, D.C. – In a House Science Committee hearing this morning, Congressman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) raised questions about the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) involvement in President Obama’s unilateral climate change agreement made last December at the Paris United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Last month, Lucas joined Congressman Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and several other colleagues in sending a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to request additional information about the agency’s plans to send U.S. federal employees to other countries to monitor the progress of the non-binding Paris Protocol climate agreement.

Referencing the January letter at today’s hearing, Lucas raised concerns to the witness panel that the “EPA is going beyond their legal authority by sending employees overseas.”

Lucas added, “It will be fascinating to see how the EPA responds to this concept of sending U.S. employees out to enforce agreements that the Senate has not yet approved.”

The president’s Paris climate promise ignores scientific data – and lack thereof – while also raising energy prices here at home. Neither the House nor the Senate has voted on passage or ratification of this agreement.

In his opening statement today, House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said, “Congress has repeatedly rejected the president’s extreme climate agenda. Now the administration attempts to create the laws on its own and has packaged all these regulations and promised their implementation to the U.N.”