US President Joe Biden gives a press conference before leaving the NATO summit at the IFEMA arena in Madrid, Spain, June 30, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
President Joe Biden on Friday said he would move forward with his own efforts to fight climate change and limit greenhouse gas emissions, a day after Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., told Democratic leadership he would not support the climate provisions in the reconciliation bill.
The comments by Manchin, a key centrist who holds the 50-50 vote in the Senate, could potentially sink months of negotiations in Washington on a sweeping policy package and end hopes that Congress will pass any major climate change legislation this summer.
“If the Senate does not act to address the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet that moment,” Biden said in a statement.
The president did not mention specific climate and clean energy policies, but said his actions would create jobs, improve energy security, strengthen domestic manufacturing and supply chains and protect the economy from future spikes in oil and gas prices.
“I will not back down: The opportunity to create jobs and build a clean energy future is too important to back down,” the president said. Biden also urged lawmakers to move quickly to pass other parts of the package that the senator does support.
Manchin, who hails from the coal-rich state of West Virginia, has previously opposed some Democratic efforts to tackle climate change and limit emissions. Because of a 50-50 vote split in the Senate, Democrats could not move the legislation forward without Manchin’s support for the domestic policy bill, which would distribute billions of dollars in incentives to cut emissions.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) delivers remarks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, November 1, 2021.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
In an interview with a West Virginia radio station, Manchin said he was still open to negotiations and would only support quick action on the drug pricing portion of the plan while delaying other parts. He said he would not support any climate regulations until he had a better understanding of July’s inflation data.
“I want climate. I want an energy policy,” Manchin said. “I wouldn’t put my staff through this — I wouldn’t put myself through this — if I wasn’t sincere in trying to find a way forward to do something that’s good for our country.”
Now, Biden must depend on imposing executive actions to address climate change that could be reversed by future administrations. Potential enforcement actions include limiting oil and gas drilling on federal lands and imposing new EPA regulations on emissions from power plants.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., argued that the administration could impose a carbon border tariff on imports from countries with relatively worse greenhouse emissions, as well as require carbon capture from all major emitters and create a stricter emission control of cars, light trucks and heavy goods vehicles.
“There is an opportunity at this point. The Biden administration has ample opportunity to step up and begin taking vigorous action to combat the climate crisis,” Whitehouse tweeted on Friday.
“With reconciliation ruled out as a path to ambitious climate action, Congress should turn to potentially bipartisan climate solutions like a border carbon offset,” Whitehouse wrote in a second tweet. “In the meantime, the executive branch has many tools at its disposal.”
Some environmental groups have called on the president to declare a national climate emergency under the National Emergencies Act, a move that would unlock authorities such as reinstating the ban on crude oil exports.
Climate groups also called on Biden to order the EPA to set national greenhouse gas limits and require the Interior Department to end new oil and gas leases and phase out oil and gas production on public lands and waters.
“This is the time for fast and furious executive action on climate,” Brett Hartle, director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Time and time again, we’ve seen Manchin’s bluff and bragging come to naught.”
Ashley Thomson, senior climate campaigner at Greenpeace USA, said the president has “no more excuses” after Manchin’s opposition to climate legislation and must use executive powers to prevent the worst effects of climate change.
“President Biden may end sales of public land leases to fossil fuel companies, begin regulating [greenhouse gases] through its existing powers at the EPA and declare a climate emergency,” Thomson said. “We can’t keep waiting for a bunch of corporate morons in Congress to do nothing while people die.”
Biden has pledged to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% from 2005 levels by 2030 and reach zero emissions by mid-century. However, without a reconciliation bill that includes climate provisions, the country is on track to miss the president’s goal, according to a recent analysis by independent research firm Rhodium Group.
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