West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey
CHARLESTON – West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey is leading a coalition of 17 states calling on the Trump Administration to not participate in the upcoming United Nations’ Climate Change Conference, or COP-30.
McCuskey and other AGs say sending a delegation to COP-30 would do little more than lend credibility to the COP’s policies. Like the Green New Deal, the COP policies harm our national security, energy independence and economic interests, but on an international scale.
The conference is scheduled for next month in Brazil.
“Now, more than ever, America needs to take a strong stance against the anti-coal, anti-gas and anti-oil policies that the COP promotes — policies driven by adverse actors and propped up by often contested climate theory,” McCuskey wrote in the letter. “If the United States participates in COP-30, it would serve only to legitimize such unsound science and policies.”
The October 23 letter was sent to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Secretary of Energy Christopher A. Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
“Our nation is facing an unprecedented energy reliability and affordability crisis,” the letter continues. “In the midst of this crisis, electric demand continues to outpace supply, with projections for 2025 and 2026 showing that demand levels will continue to reach record highs.
“Innovation has fueled this demand. America is poised to lead the charge in developing artificial intelligence — but we need consistent and cost-effective electric generation to continue to rapidly expand data centers and other tech-focused facilities.”
The group of AGs say the COP’s policy initiatives disregard the realities of renewable energy generation. They say solar and wind power have significant reliability issues and are more expensive than traditional energy sources while coal, gas, and oil can generate affordable power to meet demand that solar and wind can’t.
Additionally, the AGs say COP’s climate-finance proposals seek to require the American people to pay billions of dollars to fund COP objectives globally.
The attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming joined in signing the West Virginia-led letter.
