The Paris climate accord ratified by President Obama has all the authenticity of a $3 bill.

As a formal treaty, it would require a two-thirds Senate vote under the Constitution. Team Obama insists, however, that the nonbinding Paris Agreement isn’t a treaty and can be ratified by Mr. Obama, The Washington Times reports. And there’s the rub.

America is supposed to turn back its development and use of effective, efficient and abundant energy, such as natural gas, on the meritless presumption that China and other nations will follow suit. The U.S. regulations to accomplish this, under the administration’s Clean Power Plan, would cost up to $176 billion annually, according to House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, who called the policies “an extreme agenda based on science fiction.”

There are too many flies to count in this putrid ointment, starting with the Supreme Court ruling that halts the Clean Power Plan pending a lawsuit filed by various states, The Times reports. And apart from its dubious enforcement, the agreement gives “developing” countries like India the option to produce as much CO2 as they want, according to one analysis.

Even if energy-crippling U.S. regulations are realized, the projected reduction in global warming would be miniscule — three-one-hundredths of a degree Celsius, Mr. Smith says.

Congress must see to it that such unbridled nonsense doesn’t make the leap from whimsy to reality.

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(c)2016 The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Greensburg, Pa.)

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