The president stopped short, however, of declaring a formal climate emergency, which is being sought by Democrats and environmental groups, after a powerful Democratic senator dashed hopes for sweeping legislation to tackle global warming. Biden hinted that such a step could come. “Let me be clear: climate change is an emergency,” Biden said. He pledged to use his power as president “to translate those words into formal, official government action through the appropriate proclamations, executive orders, and regulatory authority available to a president.” On climate change, he added, “I’m not going to take no for an answer.” Biden delivered his pledge at a former coal-fired power plant in Massachusetts. The former Brayton Point Power Plant in Somerset, Mass., is shifting to offshore wind generation, and Biden has singled it out as an embodiment of the clean energy transition he seeks but has struggled to achieve in the first 18 months of his presidency. The executive actions announced Wednesday would boost the domestic offshore wind industry in the Gulf of Mexico and the Southeast, as well as spend $2.3 billion to help communities deal with warming through programs administered by the Federal Agency Emergency Management, the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies. The trip comes as record temperatures bake Europe and the United States. Fires were raging in Spain and France and Britain on Tuesday broke its record for the hottest temperature ever recorded. At least 100 million Americans face heat warnings in the coming days as cities around the US sweat through more intense and prolonged heatwaves that scientists blame on global warming. Calls to declare a national emergency to address the climate crisis have grown among activists and Democratic lawmakers after Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., last week scrapped talks on a long-delayed legislative package. Biden said Wednesday that the option remains under consideration. “I’m making the traps to the full extent of the power I have,” he told reporters after returning to Washington. “Unless Congress acts in the meantime, I can do more” on the climate, he said. “Because they don’t get made enough now.” Biden said he has been told some of his climate legislation proposal remains “in play,” but acknowledged he has not spoken to Manchin. Gina McCarthy, Biden’s climate adviser, said Biden “doesn’t have time” to treat climate as an emergency. “The president wants to make sure that we get it right, that we shape it and that we have the time that we need to resolve it,” he told reporters on Air Force One. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who attended Wednesday’s event, said he is “confident that the president is finally ready to do what it takes to address this crisis.” Environmental groups were less hopeful. “The world is burning from California to Croatia, and right now Biden is putting out the fire with the flow of a garden hose,” said Jean Su, director of the energy justice program at the Center for Biological Diversity. A climate emergency declaration would allow Biden to redirect federal resources to boost renewable energy programs that would help accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels like coal and oil. The statement could also be used as a legal basis to block oil and gas drilling or other projects, though such actions would likely be challenged in court by energy companies or Republican-led states. Such a statement would be similar to one issued by Biden’s Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, who declared a state of emergency to build a wall on the southern border when lawmakers refused to appropriate money for that effort. A federal appeals court later ruled that Trump’s action was illegal. Some legal scholars said an emergency climate order could face a similar fate. The Supreme Court last month limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that contribute to global warming. Declaring a climate emergency “is a way to move Congress and specifically Joe Manchin. That’s not what emergency powers are for,” said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the liberty and national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. Biden pledged last week to take major executive action on climate after months of talks between Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stalled. The West Virginia senator cited stubbornly high inflation as a reason for his hesitation, although he has long protected energy interests in his coal- and natural-gas-producing state. For now, Manchin said he would only agree to a limited legislative deal on health care and prescription drugs. The White House has said it wants Congress to pass that deal, and Biden will tackle the climate issue alone. Biden visited the dusty grounds of the former Brighton Point Power Station, which closed in 2017 after burning coal for more than five decades. The plant will now build undersea transmission cables to transfer power generated from offshore wind to the power grid. A few dozen people listened in the sun as Biden spoke, including McCarthy, members of Congress and Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry, a former Massachusetts senator. A new report says the U.S. and other major carbon polluters are failing to meet their commitments to fight climate change. Among the 10 biggest carbon emitters, only the European Union has enacted policies close to or in line with international goals to limit warming to just a few more tenths of a degree Celsius, scientists and experts say. __ Daly reported from Washington.
