- When Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas poured cold water on President Joe Biden’s decision to re-join the Paris climate deal, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto was caught in the crossfire.
- Cruz condemned Biden’s executive order and said that “President Biden indicates that he is more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh.”
- “The last time I checked, Senator Cruz did not represent Pennsylvania,” Peduto told Insider.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
When Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas poured cold water on President Joe Biden’s decision to re-join the Paris climate deal, a Pennsylvania mayor was accidentally hit in the crossfire.
Hours after taking office on January 20, Biden issued more than a dozen executive orders, including one to re-adhere to the Paris agreements to reduce emissions. Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump withdrew from the deal early in his term, raising concern worldwide. The United States is the second largest producer of carbon emissions, behind China.
Cruz immediately responded to Biden’s executive action by issuing a statement condemning the decision to harm US jobs and that “by signing this order, President Biden indicates that he is more interested in the opinions of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh . “
Cruz’s comments immediately caught the eye of Pittsburgh’s mayor, Democrat Bill Peduto, about 1,600 kilometers from Texas.
“The last time I checked, Senator Cruz did not represent Pennsylvania,” Peduto told Insider, saying that Pittsburgh has a rapidly growing base of renewable energy jobs and that the city has not been dependent on the fossil fuel industry for five decades.
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado
J. Scott Applewhite / AP Photo
This was not the first time that a Republican legislator has invoked the city of Pittsburgh or other cities named P in opposition to a substantial long-term investment in renewable energy.
When President Trump withdrew from the deal in 2017, he said at his news conference: “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
Although France is one of the 195 signatories to the Paris agreement, the international agreement was not designed to attract or benefit Parisians in particular. The agreement was drafted by diplomats in Paris, similar to the way the Geneva Conventions for armed conflicts and their treaties around the world originated in Geneva.
Republican MP Lauren Boebert of Colorado, the freshman congresswoman who calls herself an uncompromising antithesis of progressive lawmakers like Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez, also commented tweeting: “I work for the people of Pueblo, not for the people of Paris.”
(Pueblo, a city in the Boebert constituency, is home to Vestas’ largest wind turbine tower factory in the world. The company has invested $ 1 billion in its four factories across Colorado and employs more than 3,400 people in the state, 800 of which are based in Pueblo. The plant manager said earlier that one reason for relying on Pueblo was “Colorado’s commitment to growing its renewable energy industry.”
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto speaks at the Senate Democrats Special Committee on Climate Crisis at the Capitol in Washington, July 17, 2019.
Andrew Harnik / AP
Many Republican lawmakers like Cruz and Boebert have declared that they are not opposed to initiatives to reduce carbon emissions, but that they are concerned about reducing the number of jobs.
According to Mayor Peduto; however, the data on which these Republican lawmakers rely is not a complete picture. In Pennsylvania, clean energy jobs grew 6% in 2018, five times faster than overall job growth in the state, according to Environmental Entrepreneurs. In a state where 70% of residents believe that global warming is occurring, Pennsylvania ranked fourth for the fastest growing state in the renewable energy sector.
“What Ted Cruz is doing is threatening all those who moved to create this next Pittsburgh,” said Peduto, adding that the senator’s comments were “a simple political blow to what we were, not what we are.”
“The fact is that the Pittsburgh he is referring to is not today’s Pittsburgh,” added Peduto. “His idea that this is a city that survives from heavy industry and fossil fuels has basically not been like this since [the 1970s]. “
But Cruz appears to have profited from the viral catchphrase – his campaign website is advertising bumper stickers saying “PITTSBURGH> PARIS”.
“I would prefer that he leave us out of his political campaign slogans,” said Peduto. “Obviously, the people of Pittsburgh feel very different from him.”