EPA Administration Scott Pruitt explained why the U.S. has pulled out of the Paris climate agreement. Pruitt said the obligation put on the U.S. was frontloaded in the deal. He said the stress put on the U.S. would cause the loss of 400,000 jobs and $2.5 trillion of GDP over ten years while India and China are not obliged to do anything until 2030.



Pruitt on Monday's edition of The Story with Martha MacCallum:





PRUITT: You know, short memory these folks have, because if you go back to when Paris was actually signed by the United States, the environmental left was very critical. In fact, James Hansen, the former NASA scientist, has been called the father of climate change. He called it a fake and a fraud.



The general counsel of the Sierra Club was critical of the agreement as well. And the reason they were critical, Martha, is because it did not hold China and India accountable. India didn’t have to take any steps under the agreement to reduce CO2 emissions until they received $2.5 trillion in aid.



MACCALLUM: That’s pretty good --



(CROSSTALK)



PRUITT: China -- China didn't have to take any steps until the year 2030. And we were on the frontload of all of our cause, contracting jobs, 400,000 jobs lost under the Paris agreement, and $2.5 trillion of gross domestic product in over ten years while China and India take no steps.

