Harbert: "President Obama has the American people left out of this deal"

Maria:  

What are you expecting to come out of this summit?

Karen:

I think the president arrives in Paris somewhat constrained, because he doesn’t have the support of Congress, he’s got 26 of his governors suing him over his plan, the business community is opposed, so he doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room. I think people need to be very aware of that.

Maria:  

So in other words, nothing really comes out of this summit…

Karen:

There’s always something that comes out [of the summit]. They will have some document that people will sign on to. The problem is, back at home he’s got to get Congress involved. He’s got the American people left out of this deal. And quite frankly, the business community, the solution to our environmental challenges, has not been consulted.

Because of the American energy revolution here at home, gas prices are not at $4.50 like they could be with all the turmoil around the world. We should be embracing this renaissance here, and yet the president wants to penalize it and make energy prices more expensive here at home.

You look at America, and we’ve been leading by example. Our emissions are down, our air is cleaner, our water is cleaner, and we did that without a big government mandate, a big UN program. We should let technology advance, and the business community knows we don’t have the technologies to accomplish these huge sweeping goals the president has laid forward. And by the way, his own administration has said “I’m putting forward this plan but I don’t know how I’m going to get 50 percent of the reductions I’m committing to.” That’s problematic.