President Biden outlined new efforts to combat the climate crisis in a speech Wednesday but stopped short of declaring a national climate emergency — a move sought by the U.S. climate movement and many progressive lawmakers. This comes after Senator Joe Manchin just scuttled Biden’s Build Back Better climate legislation and as more than 100 million people in the United States are under heat advisories. Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity and senior attorney, discusses how the president can use emergency powers in order to address the climate crisis. “We’ve wasted too much time thinking about Senator Manchin and relying on Congress,” says Su. “We have to go full force on executive action.”
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be final.
AMY GOODMAN: Today we’re spending the hour looking at the climate crisis across the world, from Europe to Asia to Africa to here in the United States, where we begin. President Biden went to Somerset, Massachusetts on Wednesday to present new strategies to combat the climate crisis. These included expanding offshore wind power, and giving $2.3b to offset it. FEMAThe Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will help communities to become more resilient to heat waves and drought. Biden’s speech came as more than 100 million people in the United States are under heat advisories. Biden spoke at an ex-coal plant that is being converted to an offshore wind facility.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN:Climate change is a real threat to the United States and the entire world. So my message today is this: Since Congress is not acting as it should — and these guys here are, but we’re not getting many Republican votes — this is an emergency. An emergency. And I will — I will look at it that way. I said last week, and I’ll say it again loud and clear: As president, I’ll use my executive powers to combat climate — the climate crisis in the absence of congressional actions, notwithstanding their incredible action.
AMY GOODMAN: While President Biden repeatedly described the climate crisis as an “emergency” on Wednesday, he stopped short of declaring a national climate emergency — a move sought by many progressive lawmakers and climate activists.
Jean Su is the energy justice director and senior lawyer at the Center for Biological Diversity. She recently co-wrote the book “An Introduction to Energy Justice.” reportDescribe how the president could use his emergency powers in order to address the climate crisis.
Jean, can we start by discussing what it would look like if he declares climate emergency? And what does it mean that he didn’t do it yesterday?
JEAN SU: Absolutely. So, right now, for the first time, President Biden —
AMY GOODMAN:Jean, it looks like you have split up. But we’re going to go to another clip of President Biden speaking yesterday in Massachusetts.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: That’s why today I’m making the largest investment ever — $2.3 billion — to help communities across the country build infrastructure that’s designed to withstand the full range of disasters we’ve been seeing up to today — extreme heat, drought, flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes. There are millions of people in extreme heat right now. My team is also working together with the states to help them deploy $385 millions right now. The first time that states can use federal funds to purchase air conditioners for their homes and set up community cooling centers at schools, will allow them to help people get through extreme heat crises. …
My climate plan was not supported by a single Republican in Congress. None. Let me be clear: Climate Change is a crisis. And in the coming weeks, I’m going to use the power I have as president to turn these words into formal, official government actions through the appropriate proclamations, executive orders and regulatory power that a president possesses. And when it comes to fighting the climate change — climate change, I will not take no for an answer.
AMY GOODMAN: Again, Jean Su, President Biden used the term “emergency” five or six times during the speech but did not actually declare a national climate emergency. Its significance?
JEAN SU: Yes. So, President Biden didn’t declare a climate emergency yesterday. We need him doing that. It is a powerful rallying cry if President Biden can clearly articulate the fact that we are in a global climate emergency and use all of his tools as president to combat the crisis before us. The climate emergency declaration signals to Americans and the entire world that President Biden is not going to have a slow-paced or confused climate policy. Instead, he will be able to take an all-hands-on deck approach to the suffering we are all currently experiencing around the globe.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Jean Su, your organization, the Center for Biological Diversity, was involved in litigation against Trump’s use of emergency powers to build the wall along the Mexico border. Could you please elaborate on this case and what it might mean for today?
JEAN SU: Absolutely. That case was also my personal dispute. In that case, President Trump declared the situation at the border an emergency. In fact, it isn’t an emergency. We know that immigration is happening across the border, and we’ve known for some time. We also know where the pinch points were.
In terms of that case, he actually took money from the military, after Congress actually said, “No, you can’t have more than $1 billion,” at that point, and he went against Congress, redistributed that money towards construction of the border wall, using — illegally using an emergency power that only allows military spending to be redirected for military purposes to help the military. Several groups litigated against President Trump for abusing these emergency powers and going against Congress’s will to do that type of border wall construction. That case was eventually dropped because the Biden administration stopped building. One district court found that President Trump was allowed to use military funds in this manner, even though it was not going towards the military.
NERMEEN SHAIKH:Jean, could Jean please describe the possible actions that Biden would take in the event of a declared emergency?
JEAN SU: Absolutely. If they declare a climate crisis, the Biden administration has access to additional emergency powers and ordinary powers to address the crisis. Some emergency powers can be used to stop the flow of fossil fuels. One of these would be to restore our crude oil export ban which has allowed the fracking of the Permian Basin and the explosion of oil. Another option is to stop offshore drilling in the ocean. A third power would allow him stop the hundreds of billions in dollars per year that private corporations like BlackRock, along with all of our private bank, send to other countries to build fossil fuel plant and poisoning communities.
AMY GOODMAN:You could also respond to the question of what should happen to Senator Manchin now, that he has destroyed the climate agreement and stated that he would not support a bill in the Senate on climate.
JEAN SU: Unfortunately, we’ve wasted too much time thinking about Senator Manchin and relying on Congress. Biden’s presidency and us all have made many mistakes since then. There was an explicit focus on legislation. In fact, he’s always had these executive powers at his fingertips to combat climate with the full force of his executive quiver. And we’re asking him to move on that. He waited for Senator Manchin to move on this and did not act. We can’t wait any longer. These executive powers should have been exercised on the first day of Congress, at the same time that legislation was being pursued. So, now that we’ve seen that Congress is in flux again and people are still waiting on the whim of Senator Manchin and whether he’s going to say yes or no, we don’t have time for those games. We can’t afford those games. We have to take executive action.
AMY GOODMAN: A meme has been going around that says, “The Koch brothers still own a lot of real estate, but their best investment may be the Manchin they bought in West Virginia.” Jean Su, we want to thank you so much for being with us, energy justice director and senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.
But we’re staying on the issue of climate. Coming up, we’re going to Uganda to speak with the climate justice activist Vanessa Nakate about the climate crisis in Africa. And then we’ll go to Britain, where records have been smashed around heat, and speak with George Monbiot. Stay with us.
