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Democrat Coffay rips Meadows on climate accord position

By Bill Moss, Published: June 2, 2017

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows and a Democrat who is planning to challenge him in next year's election differ sharply over President Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement.

“I applaud President Trump for following through on this campaign promise he made to millions of voters across the country," Meadows said. "The Paris Accord is a bad deal for the American people—it hampers economic growth, burdens job creators, and stifles innovation to preserve an agreement where the benefits are miniscule at best. We all agree that we must be good stewards of the earth, but it doesn’t require a treaty never ratified by Congress to accomplish that. Time and time again we’ve seen that businesses will adapt to consumer demand to use more environmentally friendly practices–there is no need to cripple entire industries with sweeping regulations.

"Today’s decision by President Trump is another step toward accomplishing the long-term goal that the President emphasized so successfully during his campaign: putting the interests of the American worker first.”

Matt Coffay, 30, announced his run for the 11th Congressional District seat in April. He leads a local chapter of Our Revolution, an organization aligned with the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party. He grew up outside Blue Ridge, Ga., and graduated from UNCA. He was a farmer in Alexander until last year, when he took a job with the nonprofit National Young Farmers Coalition, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported.

"Mark Meadows’ praise of the decision to back out is shortsighted, irresponsible, and just plain wrong," Coffay said in a news release. "If he cared about the people of his district, he’d be encouraging us to invest and create jobs in renewable energy."

"Western North Carolina needs leadership that values the lives and welfare of regular people, not big corporations," Coffay said. "Meadows has shown his true colors by applauding this terrible decision. When I’m in Congress, I won’t make the same mistake. I’ll ensure that America leads the way in renewable energy investment and job creation. Let’s create a future to be proud of."

China now produces more CO2 than the United States annually, but high historic output from the U.S. makes it the biggest overall contributor to climate change in the world. And as a country which makes up just 4 percent of the world’s population, but which is responsible for about a third of the carbon dioxide contributing to climate change, Matt Coffay believes this country has a moral imperative to be a global leader and set an example for clean energy:

"Renewables are the future," Coffay continued. "The only question is whether or not the United States will reap the benefits of the jobs and industries that will spring up around renewable energy or if we’ll sit back while China, India, and Europe lead the way. Mark Meadows is more concerned with campaign contributions from Big Oil and the fossil fuel industry than he is in representing the interests of working families in Western North Carolina. He’d rather hand jobs over to China and India than keep them here in the United States."