US President Joe Biden may declare a climate emergency in the country during this week, The Washington Post reported, citing sources in the White House.
Biden is considering declaring a national climate emergency as early as this week to get his climate plans off the ground as talks on Capitol Hill stalled.
As the newspaper notes, Biden will have to find a “difficult balance” between the struggle for climate change and the economic reality presented in the form of high oil and gas prices.
Initially, the program planned more than $500 billion to reduce carbon emissions and develop new technologies, including electric vehicles.
However, the ambitious agenda of the American leader met with opposition in the Senate of Congress. Earlier, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (R-WV) said he was ready to support the package of budget initiatives proposed by his party members only if items related to climate change spending and taxes for large corporations and the richest are excluded from it.
Biden advisers are discussing a possible way out of the current situation against the backdrop of “exhausting heat that has hit the central part of the United States, as well as Europe,” the newspaper explains.
The Democratic Party has been calling on the administration to use all its powers in the fight against climate change, as “hopes for action by Congress have faded.”
Environmental activists have also repeatedly demanded to declare a state of emergency. In their opinion, this will allow Washington to stop the export of crude oil, impose a restriction on the drilling of offshore oil and gas wells, and also oblige the US Federal Emergency Management Agency to increase the use of renewable energy sources.
“The president has made it clear that if the Senate does not take action to address the climate crisis and develop clean energy, then he will. We are considering all possible options, but no concrete decision has yet been made,” the newspaper quoted the source as saying.
Without new climate legislation, Biden will miss one of his presidency’s key promises of cutting US greenhouse gas emissions by 50-52% by 2030, compared to 2005 levels, according to some experts interviewed by The Washington Post.
The newspaper notes that the president’s failure to date to secure more concrete action and funding from Congress is hurting US credibility abroad.