Biden Under Pressure to Declare Climate Emergency as Agenda Nosedives

Now that Joe Manchin has once again pulled the rug out from under him, essentially nixing the possibility of getting any climate legislation through for the near future, Joe Biden is under pressure to do whatever he can through executive action to combat climate change. Democrats have renewed calls on Biden to take “forceful, firm, and wide-ranging” action on the environment in recent days — and the president appears ready to to do just that, with White House officials telling reporters that he could declare a climate emergency as soon as this week.

“I think realistically there is a lot he can do and there is a lot he will do,” senior White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein said at a press conference Monday. “The president will aggressively fight to attack climate change because he knows it’s one of the reasons he’s here. And it is absolutely core to transitioning from where we are to where we need to be.”

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Biden appears to be readying to act, with an emergency declaration that could come as soon as this week and several other executive actions to curb emissions also on the way. It’s unclear what the full scope of the action would include, and a White House official told the Post that no final decisions had been made. But, the official said, the “president made clear that if the Senate doesn’t act to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, he will.”