PITTSBURGH _ Donald Trump said the voters of Pittsburgh, unlike the citizens of Paris, didn't want to be bound by the climate accord signed in that city.
Some in Pittsburgh disagreed.
"He is sadly misinformed if he thinks we are nostalgic for the smoky city days of the past," said Rachel Filippini, executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution, one of Pittsburgh's oldest environmental organizations. "The Pittsburghers I know want clean air and water, good jobs in a green economy, and a sustainable and healthy future for their children."
Still, Trump received some support from elected officials in Western Pennsylvania.
Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly called the president's decision "a victory for our economy, our sovereignty, and our Constitution."
"I have complete confidence in our country's ability to protect both our economy and our environment at the same time, and I applaud President Trump's strong commitment to this goal," he said. "As elected leaders, the laws and policies we craft must reflect the needs of our constituents, not the demands of a global ideological trend."
Republican U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus similarly hailed the pullout, noting that the Paris agreement "was never a legitimate deal."
"It was never submitted to the Senate for ratification because the Senate would never have ratified it," Rothfus said. "The Paris agreement is not about climate. It is about control. It certainly is not about growth; it is about redistribution. ... I stand with Western Pennsylvania manufacturers, boilermakers, power plant workers, railroad workers, truckers and miners in opposition to the Washington and global elites who want to concentrate power in their own hands."
In most cases, the battle lines were drawn along party lines.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle said Trump's decision to withdraw from the agreement was "foolhardy," showing that he doesn't understand the science of climate change, its economic impacts, or the strides toward a greener economy already underway in Pittsburgh.
"Times have changed, and so has Pittsburgh," Doyle said. "Our air and water quality have improved dramatically, and Pittsburgh is becoming a leader in carbon-free energy sources and energy-efficiency technologies. Pittsburgh is adapting to climate realities _ and positioning our industries to provide good jobs to Pittsburghers by fighting the very real challenge of climate change."
Gov. Tom Wolf said: "I am disappointed President Trump has chosen this path and abdicated America's leadership role in the world on climate change. This decision hurts our economy and Pennsylvania residents."
The criticism was not limited to politicians.
Larry Schweiger, a sixth-generation Pittsburgher and president and CEO of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future, a statewide environmental organization, also made the point that the president's reading of what Pittsburgh and Pittsburghers want fails to take into account not only its recent greening but also its historic leadership in the battle for clean air and water.
"None of what the president did works for me," Schweiger said. "The thing he's missing here is that addressing the causes of climate pollution is not a job killer, it's a job creator. Pittsburgh has always led the way on these issues, from smoke control to green energy, and to retreat into the dark days of the past just isn't going to work. That's not the Pittsburgh I know."
United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard said the president's decision to exit the climate agreement was "an inexcusable blow to the U.S. economy."
He said the country has been a leader in innovation and technological advances to combat climate change and its withdrawal not only cedes leadership to China but is a strong signal to domestic technology and manufacturing industries that the U.S. government won't support them.
"Climate change is a critical concern across the globe," Gerard said. "The diplomatic and trade impacts of withdrawing will be felt for many years, as the United States joins the only two other countries who are not part of the agreement _ Syria and Nicaragua.
"The administration made this choice despite the overwhelming evidence of the impacts of climate change and the near universal support for the agreement by labor, environmental, and business leaders."
Gerard urged the president to immediately reverse his decision, "to protect the planet and jobs for workers in the United States."
If Gerard waits until next Thursday, he may be able to lobby for that reversal himself. That's when Trump might attend a cookout at Jennerstown Speedway Complex to celebrate the opening of the new Acosta coal mine in Somerset County.
"A big opening of a brand, new mine," the president said Thursday while announcing his decision on the Paris pact. "It's unheard of. For many, many years that hasn't happened. They asked me if I'd go. I'm going to try."
The new mine, an underground facility, will be taking advantage of the recent bright spot for metallurgical coal _ the kind used in steel making. Run by Canonsburg-based Corsa Coal Corp., the mine promises to add between 70 and 100 full-time jobs to the region.
Met coal, which is a small portion of all coal production in the U.S., has seen its price recover nicely over the past ear. While thermal coal from this region, which is burned in power plants, is selling for around $45 a short ton, met coal is now fetching at least three times as much.
Last year, Corsa sold half of its coal to domestic steel makers and the other half abroad. But in 2017, with the opening of Acosta, it projects that 85 percent of its output will be shipped overseas.
In West Virginia, a state still heavily reliant on coal mining, Robert Duval, interim associate dean in West Virgina University's Department of Health Policy, Management and Leadership, said leaving the Paris agreement is the wrong move because "major problems such as climate change ... require multinational cooperative solutions."
And leaving the accord, which will likely result in scaled-back efforts to mitigate climate change, will impact the state's ability to transition to a different, cleaner, future economy that is less reliant on coal.
"We will probably burn less and less of it over time, but I've been on the record for about 25 years saying that in order for policy makers to do what is right for West Virginia, they need to aid sectors of economies in terms of retraining, finding new industries to bring in and mitigating the circumstances, not trying to hold back the tide," Duval said. "Because this happens to be figuratively and literally more tide than the United States will be able to hold back when it finally arrives."
