US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on climate change and renewable energy at the site of the former Brayton Point Power Plant in Somerset, Massachusetts, US, July 20, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
President Joe Biden announced new executive branch steps to combat climate change on Wednesday, but stopped short of issuing a climate emergency declaration as some Democrats have called for amid stalled negotiations on major environmental legislation in Washington.
“With Congress not acting as it should … it’s an emergency and I’m going to look at it that way,” Biden said. “As president, I will use my executive authority to fight the climate crisis in the absence of executive action.”
Initiatives include providing $2.3 billion in funding for a program that helps communities prepare for disasters by expanding flood control and retrofitting buildings, as well as raising funds to help low-income families cover heating costs and cooling.
The president also directed the Interior Department to propose new offshore wind sites in the Gulf of Mexico, a plan that could power more than 3 million homes and help the administration meet its goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. Biden is directing the Secretary of the Interior to accelerate wind energy development in the waters off the mid- and south Atlantic coasts and Florida’s Gulf Coast.
The president announced the initiatives during a speech at a former coal plant in Somerset, Massachusetts. The plant will host a cable manufacturing facility to support the offshore wind industry.
The orders come as the White House struggles to save Biden’s aggressive climate agenda after talks with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin stalled last week. Manchin, a centrist who holds the swing vote in the 50-50 Senate, told Democratic lawmakers he would not support major climate provisions in the reconciliation bill, dimming hopes that Congress would pass any major climate legislation this summer.
The administration also faced a further setback for its climate agenda after a major Supreme Court ruling last month limited the federal government’s power to impose regulations to reduce carbon emissions from power plants.
Without Manchin’s support for the bill, the president must rely primarily on executive orders to address climate change, which could be overturned by future administrations. Some executive actions could limit emissions from fossil fuel production on federal lands and waters and encourage the use of electric vehicles.
Democrats and environmental groups have called on the president to issue an emergency declaration that would unlock federal resources to address climate change. Such a declaration could give the administration legal authority to halt some oil and gas or other fossil fuel plans and shift funds to clean energy projects.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. joined by seven Democratic lawmakers in an effort to push Biden on Wednesday to immediately declare a climate emergency to unlock the powers of the National Emergency Act (NEA) and take regulatory and administrative action to curb emissions.
“Declaring the climate crisis a national emergency under the NEA would unlock authority to restore a better economy with significant, concrete action,” the senators wrote in the letter. “Under the NEA, you can redirect spending to build renewable energy systems on military bases, deploy large-scale clean transportation solutions, and fund distributed energy projects to increase climate resilience.”
Biden has pledged to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% by the end of the decade and reach zero emissions by 2050. But without major climate legislation, the country is on track to miss the president’s goal, according to an analysis of the independent research firm Rhodium Group.
“A historic climate emergency declaration is exactly what we need from Biden to address the scale and urgency of this crisis,” said Jean Su, program director for energy justice at the Center for Biological Diversity. “By unlocking crucial climate forces, Biden can put Manchin’s gaslighting behind him and get to work weaning us off fossil fuels and building the renewable energy powerhouse we desperately need.”
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