President Joe Biden stopped short of announcing a national emergency on climate change during a significant speech on the subject on Wednesday, recalling how pollution in Delaware caused him and several others to develop cancer.
Biden mentioned that he was raised in the oil-refining town of Claymont, Delaware.
In reference to the pollution, he stated, “You’d have to put on your windshield wipers to literally remove the oil slick off the window.”
That is why I have cancer, along with so many many other folks I grew up with, he remarked.
Before he was elected president, Biden had four non-melanoma skin tumours removed.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor indicated the president is still being checked for lesions in his report on Biden’s medical examination from November 2021.
O’Connor stated that there were no questionable regions for skin cancer at this time and that no biopsies were necessary.
Biden hinted that he would soon declare a national emergency on the subject in his speech about climate change and chastised Republicans for looking into his green agenda, but he stopped short of fulfilling Democratic demands to declare one right away.
Speaking at the largest coal plant in New England, Brayton Point Power Station, which is being converted into a factory making cables for offshore wind farms, Biden attributed Republicans, not Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, for the failure of Congress to take action on climate change.
When Manchin declared he could not back billions of dollars in additional climate investment as part of a bigger economic deal, he destroyed the president’s green plan on Capitol Hill.
Biden, meanwhile, concentrated on his political foes.
According to Biden, “not a single Republican in Congress stepped up to endorse my climate plan, not one.”
He then made a threat to use the presidential pen. After Manchin, who represents a state with a significant coal sector, made his position known, Democratic activists have been on Biden to take bold action.
Let me be clear: There is an emergency with climate change, Biden stated.
“And, in the upcoming weeks, I’m going to use the authority I have as president to turn these words into formal official government acts through the appropriate proclamations, executive orders, and regulatory powers that a president holds,” the statement continued.
At his words, the audience hooted and applauded.
According to Biden, “Climate change is literally an existential threat to our country and to the planet.” “This is an emergency, and I’m going to treat it like one.”
The president was met by a sizable group of sign-waving, bird-flipping Donald Trump supporters when he arrived in Somerset, Massachusetts.
Other demonstrators urged Biden to take stronger climate change action. One of them had a huge red banner with the words “Declare National Climate Emergency” on it.
As a “heat dome” descended on the United States and a “dangerous” heatwave with highs of 118 degrees began, Biden spoke.
With excessive heat warnings issued for a third of the American population, more than 265 million people will be at risk. It comes after this week’s record-breaking heat across Europe.
The president pledged government financing to assist towns suffering from the heat, including help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help states construct cooling centres to deal with extreme heat and other effects of climate change.
And he unveiled further plans to support the indigenous offshore wind sector.
Manchin stated that he would only support a fiscal package that increased subsidies to help people get health insurance under the Obamacare statute and that allowed Medicare to bargain for lower prescription medication prices.
He cited worries about historically high inflation as justification.
Then, Biden promised to take action.
After Manchin halted talks in the Senate, Biden told reporters over the weekend in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, “I’m going to utilise whatever tool I have as president to continue to fulfil my vow to progress toward dealing with global warming.”
However, Democratic lawmakers and environmental organisations have urged Biden to be more assertive, calling for the president to declare a national emergency so that federal funds can be redirected to support renewable energy programmes that would facilitate the switch from fossil fuels.
After Congress failed to provide the funds, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to redirect billions of dollars to start building a wall on the southern border.
Democrats, however, objected to his action, and it was contested in court. Soon after Trump took office, Biden retracted his declaration.
Manchin’s support is required to progress healthcare legislation, another administration priority, so the White House is being cautious to avoid alienating him.
The U.S. shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy is embodied by the Brayton Point Power Station, where Biden spoke.
Prior to its closure in 2017, it served as New England’s biggest coal-fired power plant.
It will now act as a manufacturing centre for equipment essential for offshore wind farms envisioned along the East Coast, including undersea power lines.