Senate Democrats tell Biden to ‘act boldly’ by declaring climate emergency

A group of Senate Democrats is again urging President Biden to declare a national climate emergency to unlock more executive powers, reigniting a long-running debate between climate hawks and the White House just weeks before the midterm elections.

The eight lawmakers, comprised of some of the Senate’s most progressive members, told Mr. Biden that making such a declaration would allow the passage of their tax-and-climate-spending legislation to be “the start of your administration’s ambitious climate agenda, not the end of it.”

“The climate crisis is one of the biggest emergencies that our country has ever faced and time is running out,” they wrote in a letter Tuesday. “We urge you to act boldly, declare this crisis the national emergency that it is, and embark upon significant regulatory and administrative action.”

Those pushing Mr. Biden are Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Alex Padilla of California, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Cory Booker of New Jersey. Their letter comes a week after Hurricane Ian devastated portions of Florida. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether declaring such an emergency under the National Emergencies Act is under consideration. Since Mr. Biden took office, he has rebuffed such calls, irritating his left flank and environmentalists.

The senators wrote that they want the president to use his emergency powers to take an array of sweeping regulatory and administrative action, including more stringent vehicle emissions standards, barring fossil fuel production on public lands and waters, transitioning the Department of Defense non-tactical vehicle fleet to electric and zero-emission vehicles, investigating the fossil fuel industry for “its decades of lying about its products,” and considering a civil suit against the industry.

“We do not urge you to use emergency powers lightly. We fought President Trump’s efforts to misuse executive power and sideline Congress, including to build a wasteful and destructive border wall,” the Democrats said. “If ever there is an emergency that demands ambitious action, climate chaos is it.”