“The Real Emergencies Act would ensure the president cannot go further by declaring a national emergency, which would grant him more executive authority and grow the size of government all in the name of climate change.”
Joining Capito as cosponsors are Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), John Boozman (R-Ark.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Roger Marshall (R-Kans.), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.).
Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) is also a cosponsor but, unlike the other cosponsors, isn’t a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. A companion bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas).
Capito’s proposal would prevent the president from issuing a climate change-inspired national emergency declaration based upon the National Emergencies Act, the Stafford Act, and the Public Health Service Act’s Section 319. Those three laws provide the current legal basis for presidential declarations of national emergency.
The president could still declare emergencies based on specific events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes.
Biden has been under intense pressure from hundreds of environmental activist groups that hope to take advantage of the increased federal power and spending by the government that would follow such a declaration.
In June 2022 and July 2022, Biden appeared to be on the verge of issuing such a declaration but at the last minute backed off and issued a set of related executive orders. However, those orders didn’t mobilize federal powers and resources to the same degree as a national emergency declaration.
‘The World’s Burning Up’
“The world’s burning up from California to Croatia, and right now Biden’s fighting fire with the trickle from a garden hose. Saying we’re in a climate emergency and declaring one under the law are totally different things. Declaring a climate emergency will unleash the full force of Biden’s executive powers to combat climate chaos and signal the climate leadership we so desperately need,” Su said in a July 20, 2022, statement.“With congressional action closed off, bold action from Biden is the only hope for truly lifesaving action to curb the deadly fossil fuels scorching the planet. Limited action on renewables without curbing fossil fuels is like tuning up the engine while the car barrels off a cliff.”
More recently, the huge forest fires in Canada that darkened the skies of much of the Eastern United States prompted calls from environmentalists and some Democrats in Congress for a national emergency declaration, based on the claim that climate change is in part responsible for the flaming timber.
“We ought to treat it like the emergency it is,” he said.
Blumenauer also introduced legislation, The National Climate Emergency Act of 2021.
Rep. Alexandria Occasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cosigned the letter to Biden with Blumenauer.