MORGANTOWN – President Joe Biden took his first steps in attempting an end run around Sen. Joe Manchin on Wednesday, undertaking a series of executive actions on climate change, and threatening to declare a climate emergency.
As things go with Manchin, nine progressive Democrat senators are spurring Biden on, urging him in a letter to declare the emergency. And back home in West Virginia, Manchin’s Republican colleagues are on his side.
Last week, Manchin put a pause on the second attempt at Biden’s Build Back Better package, which included climate change measures. He told MetroNews Talkline last week that he favors running the portion of the bill allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, but prefers to defer action on proposed tax hikes and climate policy until the next inflation figures are out.
That left Democrats to the left of Manchin fuming. The White House said Wednesday, “Since Congress is not acting on this emergency, President Biden will.”
The Wednesday letter from the nine senators – including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker – says, “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. While we will continue to fight for whatever climate and clean energy proposals can pass in a divided Senate, Congressional action to address the climate crisis appears to have stalled. As a result, we urge you to put us on an emergency footing and aggressively use your executive powers to address the climate crisis. … We ask that you start by declaring a climate emergency to unlock the broad powers of the National Emergency Act and immediately pursue an array of regulatory and administrative actions to slash emissions, protect public health, support national and energy security, and improve our air and water quality.”
Swiping at Manchin, they wrote, “The climate crisis is one of the biggest emergencies that our country has ever faced and time is running out. We cannot allow a single senator to stall our progress.”
Biden promised more executive actions in the coming weeks, but opened with three on Wednesday:
n $2.3 billion in FEMA funds for its its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program for Fiscal Year 2022 to help communities increase resilience to heat waves, drought, wildfires, flood, hurricanes, and other hazards by preparing before disaster strikes;
n new Health and Human Services guidance that expands how the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program can promote the delivery of efficient air conditioning equipment, community cooling centers, and more;
n the Department of the Interior proposing the first Wind Energy Areas in the Gulf of Mexico, covering 700,000 acres, with the potential to power over 3 million homes.
A report in The Hill says the climate emergency declaration would empower Biden to use the Defense Production Act, which could provide loans that could bolster clean energy deployment; deploy military construction powers to build renewable energy projects near military bases or other energy security projects; and possibly even halt crude oil exports and suspend offshore oil leases.
Capito and McKinley
The Dominion Post sent questions about Biden’s actions and plans to Manchin, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and Rep. David McKinley.
Manchin declined to comment. Capito answered the questions in some email exchanges and during a Thursday conversation with members of the West Virginia press.
Regarding Manchin’s pause on Build Back Better, she said, “I think what Sen. Manchin is trying to say is, ‘Let’s get some common sense here.’ ” Look at what’s going on with inflation and the potential to unleash more domestic energy. “I’m supporting what he’s doing.”
Capito noted her own actions and Congressional actions on executive overreach and climate change.
In May, during debate on legislation, Capito won a bipartisan 49-47 vote on a “motion to instruct conferees” that said climate change cannot be used to declare an emergency or major disaster or create any other means to expand executive powers. She said then, “Of course, I think we should address climate change, but ceding broad authority to the executive is not the way to go.”
In April, Capito introduced the Real Emergencies Act, which would prohibit any president from using the three primary statutory authorities available to declare a national emergency solely on the basis of climate change.
Congress in recent years has passed several bills, she said, addressing climate change – on the topics of nuclear power, carbon capture, and (in the recent Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) carbon reduction and electric vehicle charging stations.
“We’ve been working incrementally to get a broad consensus here to try to handle the climate situation,” she said. But the U.S. can’t do it alone; we can’t move the needle without India and China on board.
Answering a question from The Dominion Post about the possibility of cutting off oil and gas exports and more federal drilling leases, she agreed, “I do think we’re being very shortsighted here. … If we don’t unleash our own energy resources and reserves, not only are we causing a national security issue, we’re hurting our own people at the same time.”
She observed that the recent West Virginia v EPA case that requires clear Congressional authority on major questions issues may preempt Biden’s and the nine senators’ desires to preempt Congress.
McKinley commented in an email exchange.
“The notion that declaring a climate emergency is on the table for the president at this point shows how removed from reality he is,” McKinley said. “This is nothing more than a stunt from President Biden to capitulate the radical left-wing segment of his party. If the president truly wants to help the environment, he should be removing his foot from the neck of the American energy industry, where we can produce energy that will lower costs for American consumers and have a less harmful impact on the environment than the foreign nations he’s currently begging to help us.”
McKinley sponsored the House counterpart to the Real Emergencies Act. “The president should not have the authority to unilaterally circumvent the law in pursuit of a progressive wish list,” he said.
Sierra Club comments
On Tuesday, when word first came out that Biden was contemplating declaring a climate emergency, the national Sierra Club came out in favor of that idea.
“The global climate crisis is undeniably escalating, and the people of the U.S. need our government to take bold action,” the club said. “After the refusal of every Republican senator and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin to support the crucial investments in climate action and clean energy that communities and families across the country so desperately need, it’s time for President Biden to use every tool at his disposal to address the crisis.”
Sierra Club Legislative Director Melinda Pierce went farther. “Joe Manchin has made it clear he would rather side with corporate polluters than the people who elected his own party’s president on a bold climate agenda,” she said. “The American people expect and deserve an urgent response from the president to the climate crisis blazing a path to our doorsteps.”
The club called on Biden to take 10 actions, including approving stronger clean air and water standards, more stringent vehicle emission standards, stricter methane emission standards for oil and gas operations and ore stringent emission standards for power plants, along with a social cost of carbon rule.
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