There have been reports, most notably, just as he did with his left-wing liberal COVID agenda, that Joe Biden is prepared to usurp Congressional authority and implement the radical Democrat Green New Deal by declaring a national “climate emergency.”
In July 2022, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and other leftist senators in the Democratic caucus penned a letter to Biden, stating, “For too long, we have been waiting for a single piece of legislation, and a single Senate vote, to take bold action on our climate crisis. … As a result, we urge you to put us on an emergency footing and aggressively use your executive powers to address the climate crisis.”
Having not yet gotten their way in full, leftists in Washington, D.C., now seek to cite the wildfires in Hawaii — which appear to have been largely the result of negligence and the vain pursuit of Democrats’ green agenda — as reason enough for Biden to declare a national climate emergency.
Markey, one of the authors of the original Green New Deal resolution, said in a statement to Politico, “The devastation in Maui is a clear sign that the president must declare a climate emergency — now.”
“While FEMA is providing resources to the local heroes on the ground fighting for the lives and livelihoods of Hawaiians, the underlying climate-driven conditions of drought, extreme heat, environmental injustice, and non-resilient infrastructure will remain,” added Markey.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) similarly called for a statist solution to the specter of so-called climate change, stating, “This is a crisis, and we need to treat it that way. That starts with President Biden declaring a national climate emergency to unlock vast federal resources and emergency powers to help our communities prepare for and recover from these deadly climate disasters.”
When asked earlier this month by the Weather Network whether he intended to make such a declaration, the 80-year-old president claimed he had done so “practically speaking.”
Mark Nevitt, a professor at Emory University’s School of Law, characterized a declaration of any such national climate emergency as a “skeleton key” that “unlocks the door” to other powers, reported The Hill.
Nevitt elaborated that by declaring a climate emergency, Biden could take various drastic actions, such as: halt crude oil exports; stop oil and gas drilling in the outer continental shelf; and restrict international trade and private investment in fossil fuels.
Tim Steward, president of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association, told the press, “If you grant the president’s emergency powers to declare a climate emergency, it’s just like COVID.”
Accordingly, Biden would end up with “vast and unchecked authority to shut down everything from communications to infrastructure,” said Steward.