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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Would Staying In Paris Accord Mean Faster Growth?

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Thursday, June 1, 2017   

RICHMOND, Va. – Leaving the Paris climate agreement would put the United States behind, according to some energy market and job creation watchers.

Media leaks from the White House say President Donald Trump is leaning toward leaving the climate accord, but the administration has not confirmed this.

Han Chen, an international climate advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, says internationally and here in the U.S., the fastest job growth is in clean energy.

She says energy efficiency and renewables have added 3 million new jobs. Chen praises Virginia state climate policies.

"California, Virginia, New York and other states have put into place limits on carbon pollution, that they're doing trading systems for emissions," she points out.

The coal industry and its political allies argue that the climate agreement is part of what they describe as a war on coal.

But Chen says 1,100 U.S. companies have publicly declared that they favor the Paris accord.

She says these companies include some of the largest, most profitable and most forward-looking companies in the world.

"The revenues for these companies are over $3 trillion,” she states. “They support Paris because it will be better for their risk from possible climate catastrophes. It's better for them in terms of job growth, and so on."

Critics of the Paris agreement argue that if the U.S. shifts away from fossil fuels, developing nations such as India and China would more than make up the difference by burning more coal.

Chen says that's no longer accurate. She says those India and China are shifting rapidly to renewables, and two of the world's largest economies are working hard to move workers out of the fossil-fuel industries.

"Germany and in China, what they're doing is offering transition for folks who are working in traditional fossil fuels – and, in fact, China now leads the world in solar and wind."

Trump has tweeted that he will make a decision on the Paris agreement Thursday.





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