Let President Barack Obama talk. Congress should make it clear he is speaking for himself and a few other ultra-liberals – not for Americans worried Obama’s climate change theatrics will send much of the U.S. economy into a deep freeze.

Last week, Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to one of the most one-sided deals to which an American president ever has been party.

Obama agreed that by 2025, the United States will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 26 percent compared to 2005 levels. That is a substantial cut, requiring action on the order of that the Environmental Protection Agency already has said it will mandate.

Meanwhile, China has agreed only that its carbon dioxide emissions will peak “around 2030.” In other words, China gets a free hand during the next 16 years, while the United States undergoes an upheaval that will wreck the economies of coal-producing states, send electric bills for tens of millions of families skyrocketing and put many businesses in this country at a dramatic disadvantage in the world marketplace.

That assumes China keeps its end of the bargain.

Treaties such as Obama envisions must be ratified by the U.S. Senate. That, too, is based on an assumption – that Obama does not declare unilateral acceptance of the pact on behalf of 316 million Americans.

Senators should reject the proposal, much as their thoughtful, responsible predecessors did in 1997 when a similarly bad deal – the so-called “Kyoto Protocol” on carbon dioxide emissions – was sent to Capitol Hill for ratification.

Obama and fellow liberals are eager to set the pact with China in stone, so it can be used as a prod to other countries during a major climate change conference next year in Paris.

Again, senators should not allow it to happen. This is a rotten deal for all Americans. Congress should be talking around reining in Obama and the EPA, not putting a stamp of approval on its war on coal and affordable electricity.