FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 20, 2022
Contact:
Collin Rees, collin@priceofoil.org, 308-293-3159
Oil Change International response: Biden’s announcements fall short of what’s needed — a declaration of climate emergency
Today, U.S. President Joe Biden gave a speech on climate change in Massachusetts, at the site of the shuttered Brayton Point coal-fired power plant.
President Biden announced a small number of executive actions to combat climate change, including support for offshore wind and resilience measures to help communities respond to extreme heat.
Biden also indicated additional executive actions would be forthcoming. Notably absent was the declaration of a national climate emergency, which reporting has suggested is under consideration by the Biden White House.
In response, Collin Rees, United States Program Manager at Oil Change International, released the following statement:
“President Biden’s announcements, while welcome, don’t even scratch the surface of what’s needed and what communities suffering most are demanding.
“Coal baron Joe Manchin just took a sledgehammer to Biden’s legislative climate agenda. Hundreds of millions of people across the country are suffering from record-breaking heat waves. Biden’s climate legacy hangs in the balance — we’re in desperate need of bold leadership, not tinkering around the edges while the world burns.
“Declaring a climate emergency would make it clear that Biden views the climate crisis as an existential threat and unlock key powers to tackle climate change head-on and hasten a just transition to clean, renewable energy. Biden needs to start treating the climate crisis like the emergency it is, and that starts with a declaration of national climate emergency.
“In addition to declaring a climate emergency, President Biden must stop making the problem worse by ending support for new oil and gas infrastructure, blocking the dangerous Mountain Valley fracked gas pipeline, and following through his campaign promise to end new federal leasing and permitting for oil, gas, and coal.”
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