Senate Republicans Seek to Block Biden From Declaring Climate National Emergency

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) speaks during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on the fiscal year 2023 budget for the FBI, at the U.S. Capitol on May 25, 2022. Ting Shen/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and nine of her Senate Republican colleagues are cosponsoring legislation to bar President Joe Biden from doing what many environmentalists within Congress want him to do—declare a national emergency based on claims about climate change.

“The Biden administration has repeatedly governed by executive overreach when it comes to energy and environmental regulations, ignoring the law and doing so without congressional approval. These regulations have made us less energy independent, led to higher prices for consumers, and created uncertainty for employers and workers across the country,” Capito said in a June 26 statement.

“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.

French firefighters battle fires north from the city of Chibugamau, Quebec, Canada, on June 12, 2023. Quebec has deployed hundreds of firefighters, with help from France and the United States, as Canada is hit hard by unprecedented wildfires that have ravaged the country. Quentin Tyberghien /AFP via Getty Images

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.

Biden’s failure to act sparked widespread protests among environmentalists, including Jean Su, energy director of the Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity.

‘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.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) speaks in Washington on Feb. 8, 2018. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“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.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) posted on Twitter his encouragement to Biden for such an order. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) agreed, telling Yahoo News that “as much of the Northeast and our nation’s capital experience the suffocating conditions that have become a regular occurrence in the West, we are faced with yet another stark reminder that the climate crisis is here.”

“We ought to treat it like the emergency it is,” he said.

Blumenauer also introduced legislation, The National Climate Emergency Act of 2021.

In a July 19, 2022, letter to Biden urging his support of the proposal, the Oregon Democrat said: “We share your belief that climate change is not only a crisis, but also an unprecedented opportunity to revitalize communities across the United States. Given the scope and urgency of the crisis, we request that you move to use the full power of the executive branch to combat climate change by declaring a national climate emergency.”

Rep. Alexandria Occasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cosigned the letter to Biden with Blumenauer.