Merkley: Biden Needs 14th Amendment Option to Block McCarthy's 'Unreasonable' Demand 'to Unleash More Fossil Fuels'

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) argued that House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is making the “unreasonable” demand in debt ceiling negotiations “to unleash more fossil fuels on America while states like mine in Oregon are burning up from climate change.” And so, President Joe Biden should have the option to say, “I’m not going to harm our transition to renewable energy, and therefore, I’m going to use the 14th Amendment.”

Merkley said, “Here we have Kevin McCarthy who’s saying, I get everything I want or I’m going to run the economy off the cliff. That means millions of jobs will be lost, the stock market will crash, interest rates will go way up, affecting ordinary Americans. And what McCarthy is asking for in this threat to default on America is he’s asking for cuts that affect ordinary Americans at every level, their health care, their jobs, veteran’s benefits, a whole panoply of the foundation for ordinary American families to thrive. He also wants to unleash more fossil fuels on America while states like mine in Oregon are burning up from climate change. And these are unreasonable demands. And the President has to have the option to say, these things go too far, they are not acceptable, I’m not going to harm American families, I’m not going to harm our transition to renewable energy, and therefore, I’m going to use the 14th Amendment.”

Later, Merkley stated that if a debt ceiling deal had permitting reform that is “expanded to enable us to do transmission of electricity, that’s an important feature of building up a resilient grid for a renewable energy economy. If the deal instead is what McCarthy’s asking for, which is to say we want to accelerate fossil fuels while delaying any conversation about transmission of electricity, that might very well be a reason I would vote against it. I’d have to look at the entire package.” And that “proceeding to undo the work of the IRA and the transition to renewable energy would be absolutely unacceptable.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett