Portions of an email exchange involving Joe Goffman, principal deputy assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other EPA staffers including Dan Utech, the EPA’s chief of staff, appear to show that President Biden is again considering declaring a climate emergency for the United States. Climate alarmists believe that such a proclamation would give the president wide authority to act unilaterally on so-called climate issues.
The emails, uncovered by public-interest group Government Accountability and Oversight, appear to show EPA employees discussing an outline for a proposed strategy to address a future climate emergency declaration. According to the emails, the outline being discussed was on an attached document, which is not available.
“Here is proposed Dan-ready outline for your review and comment,” reads the cryptic email. The source of the emails would appear to be Goffman with recipients including Utech; Alison Cassady, an EPA senior policy advisor; Cynthia Giles of the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation; Tomás Carbonell, deputy assistant administrator for stationary sources; and Alejandra Nunez, deputy assistant administrator for mobile sources.
Many thought Biden was ready to declare a climate emergency in the summer of last year, but, although he referred to a “climate emergency,” he stopped short of a declaration, instead announcing several new executive orders and haranguing congressional Republicans for their failure to act on climate issues.
“Since Congress is not acting as it should, and these guys [Democrat Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, along with climate envoy John Kerry] here are, but we’re not getting any Republican votes, this is an emergency,” Biden said. “As president I’ll use my executive powers to combat [the] climate crisis in the absence of congressional action.”
Since his installation as president in 2021, Biden has faced mounting pressure to declare a climate emergency, with the belief being that such a declaration would free him to use executive powers to act on climate issues.
In the spring of 2022, youth activists also called on Biden to declare a climate emergency during their so-called climate strike.
“This is our world. We need to do something about it before it’s too late,” said Hanna Estrada, a San Francisco strike organizer. “This is my home and I want to stay here.”
Those who champion the idea of climate emergency liken it to President Trump’s declaration of an emergency on the southern border in 2019, which Trump used to divert funds in order to build sections of the border wall.
While Trump diverted funds in order to partially finance a construction project, which was never fully finished, climate alarmists see a future where Biden would use executive power to essentially transform the entire economy from one reliant on fossil fuels to one that would depend on so-called renewable energies.
“The president’s powers to address climate change through an emergency are very, very large,” said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity, prior to Biden’s inauguration. “This is number 1 on the list of things the Biden administration should do.”
Other “green” advocates agreed.
“It’s time to use the full force of the federal government to create millions of jobs, invest in our communities, and transition to 100 percent clean and renewable energy to usher in the economy of the future,” said Alexandra Rojas of Justice Democrats.
With Biden’s poll numbers flagging along with his prospects for reelection in 2024, a climate emergency declaration might be just the thing to energize a somewhat disgruntled Democrat base. Back in 2021, a former Trump aide recognized that possible strategy.
“It would be a pretty egregious sign of weakness right out of the gate; an acknowledgment that legislative and regulatory were destined to fail,” said Mike McKenna, a former deputy assistant to President Trump, just prior to Biden’s inauguration. “[An emergency declaration] strikes me as something that might happen in year three or year four, as part of an effort to goose the re-elect, or the election of whoever is running.”
So, like everything else Joe Biden and his handlers do, any coming announcement of a climate emergency could be construed as a political maneuver, rather than a true emergency. In the end, that would be all it is anyway, since there is no climate emergency.
