While stopping short of declaring a national emergency, U.S. President Joe Biden on July 20 announced new actions his administration will take to combat climate change as his efforts on the issue continue to hit roadblocks in Congress.

Biden said he will direct the U.S. Department of the Interior to propose its first areas for wind energy development in the Gulf of Mexico and advance wind power development off the mid- and southern Atlantic Coast and Florida's Gulf Coast. The administration will also provide new funding to make buildings more climate-resilient and improve access to air-conditioning for vulnerable communities struggling with extreme heat.

Biden will share other new executive actions on climate change "in the coming weeks," a White House fact sheet said.

"This is an emergency, and I will look at it that way," Biden said at a briefing in Massachusetts. "As president, I'll use my executive powers to combat the climate crisis in the absence of congressional actions."

Biden delivered his remarks at the site of the shuttered coal-fired Brayton Point power plant. The plant was retired in 2017 and the site transformed into a landing and production center for offshore wind cables, which Biden highlighted as an example of the clean energy transition underway in the U.S.

"Just 15 years ago, America generated more than half its electricity from coal-fired plants," he said. "Today, that's down to 20% because there's a big transition happening."

'Clear the way' for wind expansion

Biden has set a goal for the U.S. to deploy 30 GW of offshore wind power by 2030, part of a target to decarbonize the electricity sector by 2035. The White House said the parts of the Gulf of Mexico that the Interior is opening up to development cover 700,000 acres and have the potential to power more than three million homes.

The president is also encouraging the Interior to advance clean energy development off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

"Let's clear the way for clean energy and connect these projects to the grid," Biden said. "I've directed my administration to clear every federal hurdle and streamline federal permitting that brings these clean energy projects online right now and right away."

Actions by prior administrations and a key court opinion have been expected to close off wind development in those areas for the next decade.

Former President Donald Trump issued two executive orders in 2020 that effectively prevent "any leasing purposes of exploration, development or production" in federal waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina for 10 years. The orders extended and expanded the geographic scope of a moratorium from 2006 and went into effect July 1.

The language in the Trump executive orders was broad and includes oil and gas leasing, but the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it also "includes all energy leasing, including conventional and renewable energy."

On July 14, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would partially lift the moratorium. Congressional staff said it would likely take a legislative effort to overturn the moratorium, and an executive order by itself may not be sufficient.

In 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska ruled against a Trump attempt to overturn a memorandum by former President Barack Obama that permanently banned offshore oil and gas exploration in the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, potentially setting a precedent that could affect Biden administration efforts.

Pressure still on for emergency order

Although the country is on track to exceed the 2030 offshore wind goal, Biden's broader effort to eliminate power sector carbon emissions is in doubt.

Democratic lawmakers in the Senate have been working to agree on a slimmed-down budget reconciliation package with climate measures before Congress' summer break begins in August. But Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said recently that he wanted to see next month's inflation figures before deciding whether to advance climate provisions via reconciliation, potentially stranding the hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy tax credits that Democrats had hoped to move through that process.

In light of those challenges, some environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers have urged Biden to declare climate change an emergency under the National Emergency Act. Doing so could unlock presidential authorities and federal funding to combat climate change, including to "build out renewable energy systems on military bases, implement large-scale clean transportation solutions and finance distributed energy projects to boost climate resiliency," a group of nine senators said in a July 20 letter to Biden.

"While we will continue to fight for whatever climate and clean energy proposals can pass in a divided Senate, Congressional action to address the climate crisis appears to have stalled," they said. "If ever there is an emergency that demands ambitious action, climate chaos is it."

But on July 19, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ruled out Biden declaring a national emergency on climate change this week.

Environmental groups have also called on Biden to issue a climate emergency. Collin Rees, U.S. program manager at Oil Change International, said the July 20 announcements "don't even scratch the surface of what's needed and what communities suffering most are demanding."

"Declaring a climate emergency would make it clear that Biden views the climate crisis as an existential threat and unlock key powers to tackle climate change head-on and hasten a just transition to clean, renewable energy," Rees said. "Biden needs to start treating the climate crisis like the emergency it is, and that starts with a declaration of national climate emergency."

Nineteen oil and gas trade groups shared their concerns about such a declaration.

"So-called climate policies, such as banning exports or restricting domestic production, moves us backwards and will drive up both costs and global emissions," the industry groups said in a letter to Biden.

Commodity Insights reporter Ellie Potter writes for S&P Platts Dimensions Pro. S&P Global Commodity Insights is owned by S&P Global Inc.

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