Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday that President Obama’s climate deal with China doesn’t bode well for the prospects of bipartisan cooperation between the GOP Congress and the administration.
Speaking briefly to reporters before convening a private meeting with seven of the eight Republicans who captured Democratic held Senate seats in the midterm elections, McConnell described as disappointing the deal Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping made for the U.S. to reduce carbon emissions and for China to cap them. The agreement rests on Obama exercising executive authority and does not require congressional approval.
“The president continues to send signals that he has no intention of moving toward the middle,” McConnell said. “I was particularly distressed with the deal he’s apparently reached with the Chinese.”
McConnell won a landslide re-election in Kentucky, where coal fuels a significant portion of the state economy, in part because be promised to oppose the administration’s climate agenda. Like McConnell, most Republicans in Congress oppose Obama’s environmental policies.
