It's an option that has been on the table for quite some time. The administration previously considered making a similar emergency declaration when clean energy legislation negotiations stalled. And just days after Biden’s inauguration, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on him to declare a climate emergency. More recently, Bloomberg reported in April that White House officials had been talking about declaring a national climate emergency to coincide with Earth Day.
Rather than doing anything to actually help the environment, the aim of declaring this type of emergency would be appealing to the Democratic Party's climate extremist donor base and voters who say they are concerned about the environment.
The declaration would allow them to suspend offshore drilling and oil exports on the pretense of decreasing carbon dioxide emissions, but the amount of power that they stand to gain from such an emergency is the real draw here.
This type of move would be unprecedented, and most experts believe that they would face substantial legal challenges if they attempted to do so. However, as environmental activists demand increasingly bolder moves to address the dangers they perceive from global warming, this could represent a last-ditch effort to appeal to this segment of the voter base.
On Earth Day, several environmental groups carried out protests pushing for such a declaration ahead of summer and its extreme temperatures. Now, as the southeastern U.S. gets hit with two major hurricanes in quick succession, many people are taking the opportunity to blame the major storms on climate change, and the administration could take advantage of the emotions surrounding the aftermath of the hurricanes to justify making such a declaration.
National climate emergency would give Biden 130 "wartime-like powers"
ClimateDepot.com Executive Editor Marc Morano told Fox Business: “NBC News has reported that if Joe Biden declared a national climate emergency, he would have COVID-like powers under that emergency and NBC also compared the climate emergency powers to the 911 emergency powers.”
He pointed out that the Center for Biological Diversity estimated that this type of declaration would give Biden around 130 “wartime-like powers" that would allow him to go around normal legislative procedures to enforce the Green New Deal on our country without having to pass it through Congress. It essentially allows the administration to avoid the checks and balances built into our country's legislative branch and can even give the president access to funds from the Treasury to deal with the so-called emergency.
This could also pave the way for providing even more subsidies and mandates related to "green” industries such as electric vehicles, solar and wind, which is pretty concerning when you consider that subsidies for renewable energy producers more than doubled in the years from 2016 to 2022. It's hard to say how much all of this would cost taxpayers, but it certainly won't be cheap.
Forbes media chairman Steve Forbes said that such a declaration would essentially “wreck” the American economy, adding: “You’re going to pay for it with an even more troubled economy.” Rising energy prices would only be the start of our worries; once liberals seize more power, there is no telling how far they will take it.
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