US House Majority Leader: 'No taxpayer money should be committed to climate deal'

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California

US House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy says the House will not go along if President Barack Obama tries to commit taxpayer money to support a climate accord reached in Paris.

He says Congress has the authority to decide how to spend US taxpayer dollars, "and I don't think that's the best use of our money."

McCarthy's thoughts aside, his district, California's 23rd, has some of the worst air pollution in the entire country.

The California Republican suggested that a must-pass year-end spending bill currently in the works could become the vehicle for language blocking any climate spending.

He also criticized Obama's overall approach at the Paris talks.

In an op-ed he wrote for Reuters on Sunday, McCarthy took potshots at Obama's strategy in Paris, and claimed that Obama has ignored the relative success of natural gas hydraulic fracking in reducing America's carbon emissions:

To demonstrate true leadership, Obama should start emphasizing the important role of hydraulic fracturing and natural gas development across the globe. America would then be standing for policies with proven results rather than for ideas that may sound good, but just don't work.

Congress will promote the American energy story and reject commitments based on a misguided understanding of our climate, economic progress, and our needs for tomorrow... We are listening to the American people, who largely do not support the president's regulatory agenda and who understand that there is a better way. Obama's policies will kill jobs, increase costs, and decrease reliability in an attempt to achieve a goal that the free market is already achieving.

The House votes this week on several pieces of legislation aimed at confronting Obama on his climate policies, including taking aim at the administration's controls on power plant emissions.