(UnitedVoice.com) – Since he took office in January 2021, President Joe Biden has used environmentalism as a lever to push through major parts of his agenda. He’s called for green energy and reduced carbon emissions to justify massive spending packages. But could he be planning to go further? One energy industry expert fears he might be.
On July 30, Just The News reported that Tim Stewart, the US Oil and Gas Association president, told them Biden is coming under pressure to declare a climate emergency. According to Stewart, this move would let Biden use the sort of emergency powers he wielded during the recent health crisis. He warned that this would give the president “vast and unchecked authority” to shut down infrastructure, utilities, and communications, and even to freeze assets.
Stewart has evidence to support his claim that Biden is being pushed to declare a new emergency. On February 4, 2021, Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) introduced the Climate Emergency Act, which would have required the president to “declare a climate emergency.” So far, that bill appears to have died in committee; it was referred to a climate change subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee the day after it was introduced and hasn’t gone anywhere since.
Worryingly, however, Blumenauer found 62 other Democratic legislators to co-sponsor it; many liberal lawmakers are willing to hand the president wide-ranging powers to push radical environmentalist policies. Liberal newspapers like the Guardian are also calling on Biden to declare a climate emergency, and at least one green nonprofit has already released a wish list of steps the president could take. These include the end of crude oil exports, which could potentially cost the US economy billions.
Biden already seems sympathetic to those who want a declared emergency. He regularly talks about the climate “crisis” and sometimes uses the word “emergency,” too. Last June, climate envoy John Kerry said the president was considering declaring one. If he does, this isn’t an emergency with an end in sight, like the Chinese pandemic. Once the government activates those powers in an attempt to change the climate, it won’t let go of them easily.
Copyright 2023, UnitedVoice.com
