Watch: Biden Barks About Climate Change…Will This Guy Get a Bite?
President Joe Biden sent a clear signal that his hopes of getting anything done in Congress are dead. He is scrambling now with the idea of taking executive actions on his pet project of climate change.
These steps will fall way short of the big plans that were proposed to the House at the start of his presidency.
President Biden gave some remarks at Brayton Point which is a former coal-fired power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts. The president said, “Congress is not acting as it should. This is an emergency, an emergency, and 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 or congressional action.”
Biden vowed that his White House administration will deliver $2.3 billion in funding for FEMA’s resilient infrastructure program. This will all be given in the 2022 fiscal year. It will expand the low-income energy assistance program and it will now include cooling centers and energy-efficient air conditioners.
The president also is directing the Department of the Interior to propose new offshore wind areas in the Gulf of Mexico. He has a plan that could power more than 3 million homes and help the administration reach its goal to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030.
According to Biden’s team, these moves are just the first of several that the White House plans to take after the miserable outcome in Congress. They were unable to make a deal on climate change in the Senate, basically because of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. rejected the Democrat’s deal to include climate change provisions in the bigger Biden bill.
President Biden said, “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 in our communities is literally at stake.”
Watch:
President Biden said on Wednesday that he would expand existing federal programs to help Americans cope with the extreme heat wrought by climate change. https://t.co/KT1v9OrOmn pic.twitter.com/5wbjbwZFz6
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 21, 2022