Biden: ‘We Can’t Wait Any Longer’ to Address Climate Crisis

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says "we can’t wait any longer″ to address what he calls the climate crisis, and that's driving his ambitious effort to stave off the worst effects of global warming.

He's issued executive orders to cut oil, gas and coal emissions and double energy production from offshore wind turbines. They target federal subsidies for oil and other fossil fuels and halt new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters. The orders also aim to conserve 30 percent of the country’s lands and ocean waters in the next 10 years.

There's political risk for Biden and Democrats as oil- and coal-producing states face job losses from moves to sharply increase U.S. reliance on clean energy.

(Story written by MATTHEW DALY and ELLEN KNICKMEYER/AP)

U.S. Senior Senator Bill Cassidy responded to the executive orders via press release:

“Biden’s executive orders are counterproductive. They eliminate jobs and send them overseas to countries with worse environmental standards, increasing global emissions,” said Dr. Cassidy. “We don’t need symbolism — we need solutions. So far, all we are seeing from this administration is an ‘energy’ agenda that betrays the working Americans who thought that this President was going to work for them.”

U.S. Junior Senator John Kennedy responded to the executive orders via press release as well:

“Today President Biden has issued an executive order that bans all new oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and on other public lands throughout the United States. Now, look, I'm not going to bubble wrap this. This is bad. This is really bad. This is devastating to America. We have just become energy independent, but this is devastating to Louisiana. Our GDP in Louisiana is a little over a couple hundred billion dollars a year. I've seen studies that show fully a third of that is related to oil and gas, directly or indirectly. This is not just going to impact oil and gas jobs and families. This is going to hurt petrochemical. It's going to hurt our refineries. This is going to cause people to leave our state. If we lose all these jobs and people leave, the average age in Louisiana is going to be deceased.”

 

“I am very upset, and I want to ask all of my colleagues, my Democratic colleagues, in Louisiana and the legislature and local government, state government to please call President Biden. Call the White House and let them understand how much this is going to hurt Louisiana families.”

 

“I can't imagine anything right now—in the middle of a coronavirus when our economy is shut down—I can't imagine much that would be worse for Louisiana families.”

 

“I have introduced a bill today to reverse President Biden’s action. I've got to have some Democratic support in the Senate to pass it, but, if I can pass it, it's basically going to take away the power of President Biden to do this and require that we have at least two lease sales every year in the Gulf of Mexico.”