“The clock is ticking — for the Biden administration and our planet,” one campaigner asserted.
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With just 69 days left before climate-denying Republican President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House to pursue his “Drill, Baby, Drill” energy agenda, clean energy advocates in the United States have urged President Joe Biden to take “bold action” to move toward a fossil fuel phaseout and a sustainable future for the world’s people and the planet they all share.
“Although millions of Americans voted to reject Trump’s dangerous agenda, we face another four years of a Trump presidency,” said Oil Change International Executive Director Elizabeth Bast. “Trump has promised to double down on oil and gas production, accelerating climate catastrophe while continuing to enable violence against vulnerable communities — from environmental defenders to Palestinians facing genocide. His policies will compound environmental racism and human rights abuses, with Black, Brown, Indigenous, and front-line communities in the US and around the world bearing the heaviest burden.”
“Movements for change have won important victories under the toughest conditions,” Bast added. “It would take more than a Trump presidency to change that. Every pipeline, every fossil fuel export terminal, and every fracking well we can stop matters.”
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To that end, Oil Change International US Program Manager Collin Rees asserted that “in his final months in office, President Biden has the opportunity to secure his climate legacy by taking bold action to phase out fossil fuels and protect our climate and communities.”
“We are calling on Biden to immediately end fossil fuel expansion, make permanent his January pause on new [liquefied natural gas (LNG)] exports, shut down the disastrous Dakota Access Pipeline, and fulfill the US’s commitment to stop financing international fossil fuel projects,” he continued.
Looking to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) — which began November 11 in Baku, the capital of petrostate Azerbaijan — Rees said that “Biden must seize his final moment at COP29 in Azerbaijan this November to cement real climate action before Trump takes office.”
“After pledging to move away from fossil fuels at COP28, Biden needs to deliver by championing a bold new $1 trillion annual climate finance package and putting forth a plan for a fast, fair, forever, funded fossil fuel phaseout,” he argued. “This funding will transform last year’s fossil fuel promises into genuine support for adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage — but only if Biden acts now.”
“The clock is ticking — for the Biden administration and our planet,” Rees stressed. “What Biden does now will determine whether he’ll be remembered as the leader who did his utmost to limit the Trump administration’s damage and keep the world from hurtling towards climate chaos.”
Jamie Henn of Fossil Free Media echoed the demand, calling on Biden to “make a mountain of progress for Trump to try to undo.”
Biden should go all out on climate for the next 75 days.
Declare a climate emergency. Get all the IRA money out the door. Permit new transmission lines. Stop new LNG exports. Ban drilling on public lands.
Make a mountain of progress for Trump to try and undo.
— Jamie Henn (@jamieclimate) November 6, 2024
Bloomberg reported last week that the Biden administration is “racing” to complete a study examining the climate, economic, and national security implications of increased LNG exports. While Trump has vowed to end Biden’s LNG export pause on his first day in office, any adverse findings in the study could be used to launch legal challenges to the new administration’s project approvals.
Despite campaign promises to take bold climate action — including by banning new fossil fuel drilling on public lands — Biden oversaw the approval of more new permits for drilling on public land during his first two years in office than Trump did in 2017 and 2018.
During Biden’s tenure, the United States became the world’s leading LNG exporter. The president has overseen what climate defenders have called a “staggering” LNG expansion, including Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass 2 export terminal in Cameron Parish, LA, and more than a dozen other projects that, if all completed, would make US exported LNG emissions higher than the European Union’s combined greenhouse gas footprint.
The Biden administration has also held fossil fuel lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and has approved the highly controversial Willow project and Mountain Valley Pipeline despite warnings from climate scientists that continued fossil fuel extraction has no place on a pathway to limiting planetary heating and meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement.
On a positive note, the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by Biden contains unprecedented investments in the clean energy sector, including solar, wind, and battery storage.
This story by Brett Wilkins was originally published by Common Dreams and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.
