The president announced that his administration is considering offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday called climate change an “emergency” but stopped short of making it official with a climate emergency declaration.
“As president, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger. That’s what climate change is about. It is literally – not figuratively – a clear and present danger,” he said in Somerset, Massachusetts.
There was speculation that Biden on Wednesday could make a climate emergency declaration during his speech, though he stopped short of announcing such a decision.
“This is an emergency, and I will look at it that way,” he said.
But that’s likely not enough to satisfy some Democrats who have called on him to make a formal declaration. Declaring a state of emergency allows the president to tap into new funds and additional powers to address the issue, though it’s unclear whether Biden would seize the opportunity or invoke a declaration in a more symbolic way.
Biden last week promised “strong executive action” after climate legislation talks fell apart in the Senate.
“As president, I’ll use my executive powers to combat the climate crisis in the absence of congressional action,” he said Wednesday, adding that such measures would be announced in the “coming days.”
The president still announced some new efforts in his speech, including $2.3 billion in funding to “help communities across the country build infrastructure that’s designed to withstand the full range of disasters we’ve been seeing up to today.”
He also said his administration is considering offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico, which he called a “real opportunity to power millions of additional homes from wind.”
According to a fact sheet from the White House, the proposed areas cover 700,000 acres in the Gulf of Mexico and have the potential to power over 3 million homes.
Biden also called out Republicans in Congress who have not supported his climate efforts, but he declined to mention Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who threw a wrench in climate legislation talks last week. With an evenly divided Senate, Manchin’s support was critical to the effort and has complicated several of Biden’s proposals.
“Not a single Republican in Congress stepped up to support my climate plan – not one,” Biden said. “When it comes to fighting climate change, I will not take no for an answer.”