President Biden should heed calls from Congress and declare climate emergency

Background: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer encouraged the Biden-Harris White House to consider declaring the climate crisis a national emergency yesterday, echoing calls from Senator Jeff Merkley and other members of Congress. The move would empower the new administration with additional authority to transition the US toward meeting global climate goals.

Statement by Earthworks Policy Director Lauren Pagel: 

“President Biden should declare a climate national emergency because the climate crisis is happening now, not in some abstract future, and science informs us that harms to health, economy and environment will only worsen unless we take bold and immediate action.

“With an emergency declaration, President Biden could speed the transition to a fossil fuel free economy by reinstating the ban on crude exports, halting new permits for oil and gas infrastructure, cutting oil and gas methane pollution, and encouraging technologies that provide a more just and equitable energy future.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

• Policy Briefing by Greenpeace: Carbon Impacts of Reinstating the U.S. Crude Export Ban (January 2020).
• Build Back Fossil Free: “Biden’s Executive Climate Blueprint”
• Center for Biological Diversity: “Legal Authority for Presidential Executive Action on Climate: Legal Analysis Underpinning the #ClimatePresident Action Plan” (2019)