On Wednesday, President Joe Biden focused on the environment, signing multiple executive orders to “tackle the climate crisis at home and abroad.” The orders include creating a summit for world leaders in April to discuss the environment, a National Climate Task Force, and a White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy. The executive orders reportedly allow for climate change to be a central part of foreign policy and national security decisions.
The executive orders are the beginning of federal efforts to freeze new oil and gas leases on public lands, double energy produced using offshore wind, and conserve at least 30 percent of federal lands and oceans, goals the administration hopes to hit by 2030. “We’ve already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis. We can’t wait any longer,” Biden said to reporters at the White House. “We see it with our own eyes. We feel it. We know it in our bones. And it’s time to act.”
The White House press release said the President, with these executive orders, will create union jobs, a clean energy future, and sustainable infrastructure. Biden also signed a Presidential Memorandum on scientific integrity, which will aim to ensure scientists do not need to respond to political interference, but can research and speak freely.
“President Biden set ambitious goals that will ensure America and the world can meet the urgent demands of the climate crisis, while empowering American workers and businesses to lead a clean energy revolution that achieves a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035 and puts the United States on an irreversible path to a net-zero economy by 2050,” the press release said.
The executive orders signed on Wednesday follow two orders that were signed last week, including one rejoining the Paris Agreement and another canceling the Keystone XL pipeline permit.
