Climate groups and many of the president’s allies in Congress urge him to invoke emergency powers to mitigate environmental threats.
The ongoing crisis in Hawaii and a string of climate events this summer have intensified appeals for a national emergency over climate change, building pressure on Joe Biden ahead of his scheduled trip to the island disaster site Monday. | Sean McKeag/The Times-Tribune via APAs President Joe Biden prepares to visit Maui, the Hawaiian island devastated by the deadliest wildfire in U.S.
The fires, likely sparked by Maui’s electric utility and heightened by climate change impacts, swept through the Pacific paradise last week, killing at least 110 people | Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images Alongside climate groups, many of Biden’s allies in Congress have urged him to invoke emergency powers, which would enable the president to take sweeping action to restrain greenhouse gas production, implement large-scale clean transportation solutions and finance distributed energy projects, among other actions.
Declaring a climate emergency could come with political risks for an incumbent president heading into an election year, potentially spurring a spike in already high gas prices. Plus, any executive action Biden takes would likely face legal challenges, including going up against a conservative Supreme Court that has already ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency does not have the broad authority to rein in carbon pollution.
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