Biden pressured by Left to ‘take the gloves off’ via climate executive orders

Green groups reacted fiercely and said Biden will have to act alone, even after Manchin, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman, disputed the characterization of his remarks Friday.

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“It’s time for President Biden to take the gloves off and deliver through executive action the bold climate agenda that he ran, and won on,” said Jamal Raad, executive director of the environmental nongovernmental organization Evergreen Action.

Raad said Biden should more aggressively use the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act authorities, which the Supreme Court just limited, to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, as well as end new oil and gas leases on public lands and use the Defense Production Act to produce more green energy technologies.

Manchin told West Virginia radio host Hoppy Kercheval on Friday that he was worried by the 9.1% inflation rate hit in June and that he wanted at least another month to ensure that Democrats wouldn’t do anything “inflammatory” on inflation.

“I said, ‘Chuck, until we see the July inflation figures, until we see the July Federal Reserve interest rates — then let’s wait until that comes out so we know that we’re going down the path that won’t be inflammatory to add more to inflation,'” Manchin said.

“He took that as no, I guess, and came out with this big thing last night,” Manchin said of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Manchin described his hesitation as erring on the side of caution and suggested that Democrats could come back in September, after the August recess, and pass legislation with green energy spending so long as it’s not going to be “inflationary.”

Liberal Democrats and interest groups have been competing with Manchin for months over the remnants of Biden’s Build Back Better legislative agenda, a version of which passed the House last year with hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of incentives for renewable energy.

Manchin said in December that he couldn’t support the nearly $2 trillion bill and cited inflation, which has gotten worse since. He also strongly opposes some green measures favored by Biden and other Democrats, including tax incentives for electric vehicles.

Some corporations have lobbied alongside congressional Democrats for more spending on green energy, arguing that the wind, solar, and electric vehicles that would be funded would tackle inflation and help reduce energy prices by displacing fossil fuels, prices for all of which have risen to historic levels since the war in Ukraine began.

“A reconciliation package that includes these investments and reduces the deficit will help us combat inflation and bend down the cost curve for consumers’ bottom lines right away,” seven large corporate CEOs wrote in a letter to Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on July 11.

Environmental groups said it’s time for Biden to strike out on his own on the assumption that a deal for green energy spending is now out of reach with the August recess coming and midterm election campaigning to follow.

Others are urging Biden to declare a climate emergency, something the Congressional Progressive Caucus advocated as early as March.

“Since the Senate won’t act, Biden must take matters into his own hands by declaring a climate emergency and immediately moving to halt new drilling and fracking on federal lands and waters and denying the approval of new fossil fuel pipelines and infrastructure projects,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch.

Biden has used executive powers, including those provided by the DPA, on several occasions to prop up more renewable energy and other green technologies. He also invoked emergency trade powers to preempt the imposition of new duties on solar imports from Asia in a bid to enable more solar energy project development.

Proponents of new spending on green energy, including green energy trade groups, have praised those actions in general but maintain that they are no replacement for legislation.

Some of those same groups shared in the wariness Friday over the tough odds for a reconciliation deal.

“Absent new legislation, the renewable sector will not grow at the pace needed to address the climate imperative,” said Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy.

Manchin’s differences of opinion with his party on energy issues have been apparent since energy prices began rising last year — and even more in light of the war in Ukraine’s effect on energy prices. He encouraged the Biden administration to consider bringing back the Keystone XL pipeline, the permitting for which Biden canceled on the day he took office.

A handful of Democrats, Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) among them, have also gone on record to support more offshore oil and gas leasing to increase energy supplies domestically.

Sen. Ed Markey (MA), a liberal Democrat and critic of the oil and gas industry, pledged to “not give up” following the report about Manchin and the negotiations over spending.

“Rage keeps me from tears. Resolve keeps me from despair,” Markey tweeted Thursday evening. “We will not allow a future of climate disaster. I believe in the power of the Green New Deal.”

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Manchin holding out on the spending bill has not been the only setback for Biden’s climate agenda. Biden pledged to end new oil and gas leasing on federal lands during his presidential campaign, and he ordered a pause on new leasing, but his administration has carried out multiple lease sales since a judge enjoined the leasing pause.

Biden has also called on the oil and gas industry to increase production to bring down high prices and committed to helping Europe secure more natural gas from the United States and elsewhere, initiatives that have yielded criticism from environmental groups.