GOP attorneys general urge Trump administration not to send delegation to globalist climate powwow

Seventeen Republican attorneys general urged the Trump administration Thursday to skip the major U.N. climate conference this year over concerns that participation would validate the aggressive green policies that align with the conference talking points.

Though the Trump administration has not announced that it will send a delegation to attend COP30 this year, some GOP senators have reportedly floated the idea of participating in the conference on Oct. 10. The letter, led by West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey, warned three energy cabinet secretaries that the administration’s attendance may signal endorsement of COP-aligned green policies that the Republican attorneys general argue have dire consequences.

“Sitting out the COP-30 conference sends a strong message that America will no longer be part of the green new scam. Renewables are not reliable and are expensive – just look at California – but yet, this gathering will continue to push these climate initiatives with their grandiose declarations, while ignoring reality,” McCuskey told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “In this country, we finally have an administration taking bold action to secure the Nation’s energy interests by investing in traditional fuels and undoing harmful regulations. Skipping COP-30 signals that America will pursue energy policies based on what provides the most affordable and reliable energy to the American people, not international pressure.”

Letter Re COP30 From AGs by audreystreb

McCuskey and the 16 other attorneys general argued in the letter that COP-aligned policies like net-zero have major consequences and run counter to the Trump administration’s goals, addressing the warning to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin.

Though the first Trump administration sent delegations to the U.N. conference and advocated for fossil fuel use, the attorneys general warned against lending any credibility to the long-standing climate conference that has fostered some of the most aggressive global emissions goals like the Paris Agreement Trump exited through a day-one executive order.

“Sending a delegation to COP-30 would do little more than lend credibility to the COP’s policies. Yet we should not permit international actors to dictate our energy and environmental choices; the federal government (alongside States) should be making those calls. And while we understand the hope that participating might allow for an ‘honest dialogue’ about the realities of climate change, we’re less hopeful,” the attorneys general wrote. “By refusing to participate in COP-30, America will safeguard its national security, energy independence and economic interests. We urge this administration to continue putting America first by declining to participate in COP.”

The letter also states that countries that primarily rely on wind and solar have more expensive electricity, and that some green energy resources not only are less reliable but also pose dangers to the environment despite the prevailing narrative that they will help save the planet by cutting down on carbon dioxide emissions.

“Overreliance on renewable energy generation destabilizes the electric grid and heightens the risk of dangerous and costly blackouts,” the letter states. “Renewable energy sources also present both known and (currently) unknown hazards for which the COP fails to account.”

The attorneys general also argued that reliance on wind and solar resources also pose a national security risk as China dominates parts of the green energy market, especially critical minerals needed for solar panels.

“Cost and reliability aside, increased reliance on renewable energy also endangers America’s national security and energy independence,” the letter states. “Renewable energy generation relies heavily on materials procured outside of the United States, with China supplying many of the materials needed for renewable generation. So, renewable energy requires the United States to become only further entangled with hostile interests.” (RELATED: China Tightens Its Chokehold On Critical Resources Ahead Of Trump-Xi Summit)

.@SecretaryWright said that though he will not be attending COP30 this year, he’d like to attend COP31 to express his views on energy at a place the left has dominated for so long.

“This has been their platform,” he said at an @A1Policy event Wednesday. @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/tWzMeORq4G

— Audrey Streb (@AudreyLStreb) October 22, 2025

Wright mentioned at an event in Washington, D.C., Wednesday that though he would not be attending COP30, he is interested in participating in COP31 to voice a different viewpoint in a place where left-leaning views on energy policy have dominated for so long.

Republican Utah Sen. John Curtis told E&E News on Oct. 10 that he and Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons planned to lead a delegation to COP30 and that three other unnamed Republicans were also interested in joining the group, though a spokesperson for Curtis told the DCNF that “plans are not finalized yet for the Senator’s travel.” Curtis told E&E News that he would like to advocate for nuclear energy opportunities at the conference.

The GOP attorneys general as well as some energy policy experts argue that any Republican participation would be counterproductive to the Trump administration’s goals.

“RINOs like Sen. Curtis are trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of MAGA victory by going to the annual UN climate confab in Brazil,” Steve Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, told the DCNF previously.

President Donald Trump called climate change policy the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” in front of the United Nations General Assembly in September. Trump has moved to ax federal support for green energy sources like wind and solar that the Biden administration favored while boosting conventional resources like coal.

Notably, McCuskey and the attorneys general argued in the letter that COP-aligned policies have led to an early phase-out of coal that has destabilized the American power grid. Wright has issued several emergency orders to keep coal plants across the country humming while warning of the dangers of energy poverty.

“But at a time when demand for energy is greater than ever, the prior administration embraced COP policies that dismantled — rather than supported — coal, oil, and gas production,” the letter states. “COP-aligned policies have also already caused serious problems at the state level. Since California adopted a net-zero emissions target in 2018, for example, Californian consumers have paid more for less reliable energy.”

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