Paris Climate Accord was another bad deal by Obama: T. Boone Pickens

Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens cheered President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord Thursday afternoon, saying the agreement was yet “another bad deal” negotiated under former President Obama.

"America should applaud President Trump's decision to exit [the accord]. We should pursue a new environmental agreement on the global stage that achieves a fair, balanced and achievable commitment by all nations. This will protect American jobs and create yet another opportunity to focus on utilizing everything American when it comes to energy," Pickens said.

President Trump shared many of the same sentiments during a press conference in the White House Rose Garden Thursday, saying he worried restrictive climate regulations would inhibit America’s ability to compete economically on the global stage.

“[The Paris Agreement is] very unfair at the highest level to the United States,” he said. “The cost to the economy at this time would be close to $3 trillion in lost GDP and 6.5 million industrial jobs, while households would have $7,000 less income, and in many cases much worse than that.”

While the aim of leaving the international accord may be to boost the U.S. economy through allowing the manufacturing sector to expand with less regulation, not all energy executives are on the same page as the current administration when it comes to the threat climate change poses. ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) CEO Darren Woods, who took the helm at one of the world’s leading oil and gas companies when Rex Tillerson was tapped as Secretary of State, sounded a strikingly different note in a February blog post.

“I believe, and my company believes, that climate risks warrant action and it’s going to take all of us – business, governments and consumers – to make meaningful progress. At ExxonMobil, we’re encouraged that the pledges made at last year’s Paris Accord create an effective framework for all countries to address rising emissions; in fact, our company forecasts carbon reductions consistent with the results of the Paris Accord commitments,” Woods said.

President Trump said Thursday he would look to renegotiate the deal, a sentiment which has already been renounced by leaders from France, Germany and Italy.

"We deem the momentum generated in Paris in December 2015 irreversible and we firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economies," leaders of the three countries said in an unusual joint statement. The trio of leaders also said they regretted the United States’ decision to withdraw.