WASHINGTON — Hours after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., delivered a fatal blow to climate change legislation championed by Joe Biden, White House officials began making plans for the president to take matters into his own hands.
They wanted to act fast. Heading into the weekend, news of historic heat waves scorching cities from Phoenix to London seemed to underscore the urgency of the climate threat. And they had the perfect stage to announce bold action: In a few days, Biden would deliver a speech on clean energy in front of a shuttered Massachusetts coal plant.
His aides worked feverishly on a plan to show he was aggressively, and unilaterally, attacking climate change. They drafted a menu of options, including an emergency proclamation that would unlock sweeping executive powers allowing Biden to potentially block crude exports, fund clean energy construction and curtail offshore oil drilling.
Then, before the speech, Biden himself hit pause. There would be no emergency proclamation — not yet. He sent the aides back to the drawing board, where they remain, trying to chart an ambitious path forward that will not only pass legal muster but yield measurable results for voters, all while delicately handling Senate politics.
The new campaign will unfold over the next few weeks, with policy initiatives likely touching manufacturing, transportation and other sectors. An emergency proclamation is still likely. But the frenzied effort to get there — recounted by multiple people familiar with the deliberations — suggests that the White House is struggling to work around the narrowly divided Congress, even as it seeks to move independently.
While the administration spent months amassing a suite of possible policies to deploy in case congressional talks collapsed, those were far from ready.
After Manchin’s move, aides began drafting an order that would trigger immediate interventions and honed ideas for actions the president and federal agencies could swiftly take. Some agency officials were enlisted to help build out the policy plans, people familiar with the matter said.
White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy canceled her travel plans and stayed in D.C., where she presented options and their potential ramifications to White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce Reed and Biden.
By late Monday, some officials were preparing for a possible midweek climate emergency declaration, though no decision had been made, two people familiar with the matter said.
By midday Tuesday, the strategy for Wednesday’s speech no longer included an emergency proclamation.
Biden had pressed aides to move rapidly — putting actions on the table that could be delivered in short order. But he stressed that the plans needed to be fully fleshed out and made as robust as possible. On Wednesday, Biden acknowledged that tension. “I’m running the traps on the totality of the authority I have,” he told reporters.
There were political considerations, too, although they weren’t deciding factors in postponing an emergency declaration, people familiar said.
There were discussions, for example, about the timing of a climate proclamation — which could upset work in Congress on health care legislation, people familiar said. Senate dynamics were a part of the calculus, said one administration official who asked not to be named describing the deliberations. Despite Manchin’s withdrawal of support for the climate package, the White House does not want to alienate him — a moderate Democrat from coal- and gas-rich West Virginia whose vote is critical to pass key legislation in the Senate.
At the same time, the menu of possible policy announcements for Biden’s speech was also being narrowed down. Roughly a half dozen iterations of the portfolio were considered between Sunday and Tuesday evening as aides tried to balance what was immediately actionable with the risks of appearing to be doing too little, people familiar said.
In one instance, aides weighed revoking an order from former President Donald Trump that’s been seen as blocking new offshore wind leases in the southeast U.S. Ultimately, Biden stopped short of the repeal, instead directing Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to advance wind development in the region.
In the end, Biden’s speech was narrowly focused on extreme heat, made worse by climate change. He announced the expansion of a federal aid program so low-income families could buy air conditioners and billions in funding for a federal grant program to build resiliency against heat waves, hurricanes and other climate disasters.
Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry told The New York Times that Biden is “very close” to declaring a national emergency on climate. It’s a matter over when — not if — that should happen, Kerry said.
While next steps are hashed out, lobbyists for renewable energy and environmental interests are handing the White House their own suggestions for how Biden can use presidential powers — including some reserved for emergencies — to foster clean energy and stifle fossil fuels. Analysts expect the president to focus on nurturing green energy — instead of attacking fossil fuels — before the November election.
Ultimately, Biden didn’t want Congress’ failure to act to determine how people viewed the U.S. as moving on the issue, McCarthy said.
“So what you saw on Wednesday was the president seizing an opportunity to basically take the ball and say we’re going to run with it,” she said. “And that’s what you’re going to see coming up.”
