Thwarted by Congress, Biden Contemplates ‘Emergency’ Declaration To Address Climate Change

President Biden is considering borrowing a page from his predecessor’s playbook and declaring a national “climate emergency” that would allow him to make an end-run around Congress and issue executive orders aimed at curbing climate change and hastening the country’s shift toward renewable energy.Initial reports suggested that the president would make the declaration as soon as Wednesday, when he is scheduled to visit a mothballed power plant at Massachusetts to deliver remarks on climate change. Precisely what he would do with such a declaration — which was first reported by the Washington Post — are unclear. The Associated Press reported Tuesday, however, that Mr. Biden would stop short of issuing the declaration and instead focus on other measures for the time being.The White House economic advisor, Jared Bernstein, said over the weekend that the president would pursue his climate agenda “with or without Congress” after talks on a major spending bill intended to deal with climate change broke down late last week.In a meeting with reporters at the White House Monday afternoon, officials declined to offer any details on what executive measures would be taken but reiterated the administration’s resolve on the issue and cited earlier measures such as invoking the Defense Production Act in the name of clean energy as an example of the possible path forward. Even without congressional action, “there is a lot he can do and there is a lot he will do,” Mr. Bernstein said. “The president will aggressively fight to attack climate change because he knows it’s one of the reasons he is here.”Declaring an emergency would mirror the actions taken by President Trump, who declared a state of emergency after Congress refused to approve $8 billion in spending he wanted to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Democratic lawmakers howled in protest, and several states, along with the ACLU and national environmental groups, sued to block Mr. Trump’s move.The lawsuits were initially successful, with federal judges ruling that the Trump administration’s shift of defense department funds to finance the wall was an illegal end-run around Congress’s control of the national purse strings. Eventually, however, the Supreme Court stepped in and allowed the administration to proceed.Mr. Biden’s move would come as progress on the climate change agenda favored by progressives in his party has come to a standstill in Congress. After months of negotiations, Senator Manchin of West Virginia — a Democratic moderate — said Friday he would not support a climate change agenda that included significant spending increases for clean energy given the current inflationary climate.Without Mr. Manchin’s support, any Democratic legislative efforts in the Senate are dead-on-arrival given the party’s razor-thin majority and universal Republican opposition to Mr. Biden’s green agenda.Following the collapse of talks, climate hawks in Congress such as Senator Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, urged the administration to take more aggressive measures — up to and including an executive order declaring a state of emergency.“This is an important moment. There is probably nothing more important for our nation and our world than for the United States to drive a bold, energetic transition in its energy economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy,” Mr. Merkley told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday.The most extreme voices among climate change activists have gone so far as to suggest that Mr. Biden should take executive action to ban fossil fuel exports, halt any new leases for fossil fuel exploration and development on public lands and water, and lean even further on the Defense Production Act to encourage the transition toward cleaner energy sources.

Thwarted by Congress, Biden Contemplates ‘Emergency’ Declaration To Address Climate Change

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