SOMERSET, Mass. (AP) – President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced modest new steps to combat climate change and promised stronger action to come, saying, “This is an emergency and I will look at it that way.”
The president, however, did not declare a formal climate emergency, which Democrats and environmental groups have been looking for after an influential Democratic senator dashed hopes of comprehensive legislation to address global warming. Biden hinted that this step could come.
“Let me be clear: climate change is an emergency,” Biden said. He pledged to use his power as president “to turn those words into official and official actions of the government through the appropriate proclamations, executive orders, and regulatory power that a president possesses.”
When it comes to climate change, he added, “I will not accept a no in response.”
Biden delivered his engagement at a former coal-fired power plant in Massachusetts. The former Brayton Point power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts, is being shifted to the manufacture of offshore wind power, and Biden chose it as a embodiment of the transition to clean energy that he seeks but has struggled with. to achieve this during the first 18 months of his presidency.
The executive actions announced Wednesday will strengthen the national offshore wind industry in the Gulf of Mexico and the southeast, as well as invest $ 2.3 billion to help communities cope with rising temperatures through programs administered by the Federal Agency. of Emergency Management, the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies.
The journey comes as historic temperatures drag Europe and the United States. Forest fires wreaked havoc in Spain and France, and Britain broke its highest temperature record on Tuesday. At least 100 million Americans are facing heat warnings in the coming days, as U.S. cities are sweating through more intense and lasting heat waves that scientists attribute to global warming.
Calls for a national emergency declaration to address the climate crisis have been mounting among activists and Democratic lawmakers after Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., last week slammed talks on a backward legislative package.
Biden said Wednesday that the option is still under consideration. “I’m cheating on the totality of authority I have,” he told reporters after returning to Washington. “Unless Congress acts in the meantime, I can do more” about the climate, he said. “Because not enough is being done now.”
Biden said he has been told part of his climate bill is still “at stake,” but acknowledged he has not spoken to Manchin.
Gina McCarthy, Biden’s climate advisor, said Biden doesn’t “run away” from treating the weather as an emergency. “The president wants to make sure we do it right, that we’re presenting it, and that we have the time to resolve it,” he told reporters on Air Force One.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., Who attended Wednesday’s event, said he was “confident the president is finally willing to do whatever it takes to deal with this crisis.”
Environmental groups had less hope. “The world is burning from California to Croatia, and right now Biden is fighting the fire with the dripping of a garden hose,” said Jean Su, director of the Center for Diversity’s energy justice program. Biological.
A climate emergency statement would allow Biden to redirect federal resources to strengthen renewable energy programs that help accelerate the transition of fossil fuels such as coal and oil. The statement could also be used as a legal basis to block oil and gas drilling or other projects, although such actions would likely be challenged in court by energy companies or Republican-led states.
That statement would be similar to that made by Biden Republican predecessor Donald Trump, who declared a national emergency to build a wall on the southern border when lawmakers refused to allocate money for the effort. A federal appeals court later ruled that Trump’s action was illegal.
Some jurists said a climate emergency order could have a similar fate. The Supreme Court last month limited the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that contribute to global warming.
Declaring a climate emergency “is a way to move for Congress and, in particular, for Joe Manchin. Emergency powers do not serve that purpose,” said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Brennan Center for National Security and Freedom Program. Justice of the New York University School of Law.
Biden pledged last week to take significant executive action on the climate after months-long talks between Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., were halted. The West Virginia senator cited stubbornly high inflation as the reason for his hesitation, even though he has long been protecting energy interests in his coal and gas-producing state.
For now, Manchin has said he will only accept a limited legislative agreement on health care and prescription drugs. The White House has indicated that it wants Congress to accept this agreement and Biden will address the climate issue on his own.
Biden visited the dusty grounds of the former Brayton Point power plant, which closed in 2017 after burning coal for more than five decades. Now, the plant will manufacture submarine transmission cables to carry the energy generated by the sea wind to the electricity grid.
A few dozen people listened under the blazing sun as Biden spoke, including McCarthy, members of Congress and Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, a former Massachusetts senator.
A new report says the United States and other major carbon-polluting nations are failing to meet their commitments to fight climate change. Among the top 10 carbon emitters, only the European Union has enacted policies that are close or consistent with international goals to limit warming to just a few tenths more of a degree Celsius, scientists and experts say.
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Daly reported from Washington.