White House: Biden Has Been ‘Unafraid to Use His Emergency Authority’ on Climate

On Thursday’s broadcast of “NewsNation Now,” White House National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi stated that President Joe Biden has “been unafraid to use his emergency authority in the past” on climate, but he wouldn’t comment on any hypotheticals over declaring a climate emergency.

Host Connell McShane asked, “Now, I’ve seen reports in recent weeks that maybe the next step from the White House might be to declare what’s called a climate emergency. There have been reports that you might go down that path I know — I believe it’s been discussed in the past, but then you’d be talking about something that might really hurt the domestic oil industry if you had to cut exports or suspend offshore drilling, things like that. Is that on the table right now? Is that being talked about at the White House?”

Zaidi responded, “I won’t engage in hypotheticals. What I will say is, we look at every single tool that we’ve got to take on this climate crisis and unlock the economic opportunity that’s embedded in taking on the crisis for the American people. The President’s been unafraid to use his emergency authority in the past. For example, he used it to leverage the Defense Production Act, an emergency tool to boost solar manufacturing and manufacturing of heat pumps here in the United States. We’ll continue to use all the tools at our disposal to grow the U.S. economy and cut our emissions.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett