Joe Biden announced he will use executive powers to combat a “climate emergency” on Wednesday during a speech at Brayton Point Power Station, a former coal-fired power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts.
“I come here today with a message,” Biden said. “As president, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger. And that’s what climate change is about. It is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger. The health of our citizens and our communities is literally at stake.”
“So my message today is this. Since Congress is not acting as it should, and these guys here are,” he continued, gesturing to Democrat lawmakers in attendance. “I said last week and I’ll say it again loud and clear. As president, I’ll use my executive powers to combat the climate crisis in the absence of congressional action.”
🇺🇸 — LIVE: President Biden delivers remarks on executive actions to “tackle the climate crisis and build the opportunity for a clean energy future.”https://t.co/YXcrwmFUKy
— Belaaz News (@TheBelaaz) July 20, 2022
“We’re not getting many Republican votes,” Biden added. “This is an emergency, an emergency and I will, I will look at it that way.”
The effort to mitigate climate change requires a $2.3 billion investment from FEMA to help make communities more “resilient” during extreme heat waves.
My message today is loud and clear: Since Congress is not acting on the climate emergency, I will.
And in the coming weeks my Administration will begin to announce executive actions to combat this emergency.
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 20, 2022
Despite winning an unprecedented 81 million votes during the 2020 presidential election, just 20 chairs were laid out for the attendees of Biden’s big announcement.
As usual, Biden struggled to read the teleprompter during his garbled speech.
At one point it appeared he announced he has cancer.
Biden stopped short of declaring a federal emergency, but pledged to continue to “use my executive power to combat climate crisis in the absence of congressional action.”
According to a report published in February by the Center for Biological Diversity, declaring an emergency would authorize the Biden administration to execute “Key Climate Emergency Executive Actions.
The executive powers would include the capacity to limit all fossil fuel imports and exports, suspend the offshore drilling leases for 11 million acres of federal waters and reinstate a crude oil export ban that Congress voted to repeal in 2015.
There obviously is no "climate emergency"–for Biden to dictate otherwise is a desperate abuse of power.
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) July 19, 2022
