US President Joe Biden unveiled a series of executive measures Wednesday to combat climate change and pledged more to follow, seeking to advance his environmental agenda stalled by unsupportive lawmakers and a conservative Supreme Court.

Summer heat waves have highlighted the threat, with 100 million people in the United States under excessive heat alerts, and devastating record temperatures causing misery across Europe.

"Climate change... is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger," Biden said, announcing a $2.3 billion investment to help build US infrastructure to withstand climate disasters.

"The health of our citizens and our communities is literally at stake... Our national security is at stake as well. (...) And our economy is at risk. So we have to act."

Biden, delivering his address at a former coal power plant in Massachusetts, said his administration would not hesitate to do whatever is necessary, with or without lawmakers on board.

"Congress is not acting as it should... This is an emergency and I will look at it that way. As president, I'll use my executive powers to combat the climate crisis," he said.

But he stopped short of declaring a formal emergency, which would grant him additional policy powers.

- Repeated setbacks -

Biden began his term last year promising to fulfill campaign pledges to tackle the global climate crisis, but his agenda has faced blow after blow.

His first day in office, Biden signed an executive order to bring the United States back into the Paris climate agreement, followed later by an ambitious announcement that he was targeting a 50-52 percent reduction from 2005 levels in US net greenhouse gas pollution by 2030.

But his signature Build Back Better legislation, which would have included $550 billion for clean energy and other climate initiatives, is all but dead after failing to receive the necessary backing in Congress as Democrat Joe Manchin said he would not support the bill in a evenly divided Senate.

And last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot issue broad greenhouse gas regulations without congressional approval.

The Biden administration has framed climate policies as a national security issue, made all the more urgent by soaring fuel prices in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Not only does it affect our infrastructure... It has an impact on our readiness," White House spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday.

State Department spokesman Ned Price pointed to the extreme heat wave tormenting Europe this week -- with Britain recording a temperature of 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) -- as more proof that climate action cannot wait.

"We are committed to taking advantage of this moment and doing everything we can, including on the world stage," Price told reporters, "to ensure that this decisive decade does not go by without us taking appropriate action."

Why Biden's climate agenda has faltered
Washington (AFP) July 20, 2022 - President Joe Biden ran for office on a pledge to tackle the global climate crisis.

Instead, he has seen his legislative ambitions defeated by Congress, the Supreme Court has delivered a hammer blow to the federal government's ability to regulate greenhouse gasses, and the Ukraine crisis has been a boon for fossil fuels.

As the Democrat is poised to announce a series of new executive measures, including additional funding to help protect communities from extreme heat and boosting wind production, here is an overview of his term so far.

- What's at stake -

Shortly after taking office, Biden announced he was targeting a 50-52 percent reduction from 2005 levels in US economy-wide net greenhouse gas pollution in 2030, before achieving net zero in 2050, as part of the country's Paris Agreement goals.

"Biden has said he thinks that climate change is the existential issue of our time," and has been more emphatic than any of his predecessors including Barack Obama, Paul Bledsoe of the Progressive Policy Institute told AFP.

The president has framed the issue as key to the economic and national security of the United States, as well as public safety -- and climate scientists are sounding the alarm now more than ever.

"I think that more and more people are realizing that we're living through what could eventually cause us to lose everything in terms of habitability and everything that we value in life," climate scientist Peter Kalmus told AFP.

Europe's punishing heatwave serves as a timely reminder that warming won't be an issue confined to the Global South, but instead threatens civilization as we know it, he added.

- Congress, the Supreme Court, and Ukraine -

The main legislative plank of Biden's agenda was to have been the Build Back Better bill, which would have plowed $550 billion into the clean energy and climate businesses -- much coming from tax credits and incentives.

That effort is now in tatters after Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, a fossil fuel booster who wields outsized power in the evenly split Senate, walked away last week from the bill that he'd promised to back.

At the end of June, the conservative supermajority Supreme Court found that the federal Environmental Protection Agency cannot issue broad limits on greenhouse gasses, such as cap-and-trade schemes, without Congressional approval.

"So we're on two strikes," said Bledsoe, who served as a climate aide to former president Bill Clinton.

What's more, the oil industry has pushed for more drilling in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, casting the issue as one of energy security.

A recent analysis by the Institute for Energy Research said that Biden's government picked up the pace of drilling permits on public land from March onward "to mollify the political pressure rising along with pump prices."

Biden had vowed to end new drilling on public lands, but his "pause" was overturned by a Trump-appointed judge in 2021.

On the other hand, there have been some partial wins: the administration has promulgated tighter emissions standards for vehicles, and toughened regulations on super-polluting methane emissions, said Bledsoe.

The bipartisan infrastructure law, passed last November, also contained some climate provisions, including $7.5 billion for a nationwide network of electric vehicle chargers and investments in carbon capture and hydrogen technologies.

- What's next? -

But without the big ticket items, the United States is falling far short of its goals.

The Rhodium Group, an independent research firm, finds that "as of June 2022, we find that the US is on track to reduce emissions 24 percent to 35 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 absent any additional policy action."

The White House has not ruled out declaring a "climate emergency," which would grant Biden additional policy powers, but given a hostile judiciary, this would likely be subject to legal challenge.

Bledsoe said to achieve real change, Biden should instead push for broad public backing.

"Democrats should make popular consumer clean energy tax breaks a key election issue to gain seats in Congress, and pass the bill in January 2023."

Related Links
Climate Science News - Modeling, Mitigation Adaptation

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Climate protesters block UK's busiest motorway after heatwave
London (AFP) July 20, 2022
Climate demonstrators on Wednesday triggered a lengthy tailback on Britain's busiest motorway encircling London, warning that a record-breaking heatwave this week was a dire reminder for urgent action. Members of the group Just Stop Oil climbed gantries over the M25 arterial motorway, causing police to intervene and vehicles to back up for several miles (kilometres) in one direction. Temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in southern England for the first time on Tuesday ... read more