President Joe Biden called climate change an “existential threat” and unveiled new policies to fight its effects — including opening additional offshore areas to wind farms — after Sen. Joe Manchin’s objections halted broader legislation to curb rising temperatures.
Provisions Biden unveiled Wednesday include moving to expand wind power generation and the availability of efficient home cooling systems, as well as allocating emergency funding for infrastructure and projects like cooling stations in places facing extreme heat.
But with an eye toward retaining Manchin’s support for some measures, Biden held back on declaring a formal climate emergency — a move that would unlock broad new powers to develop clean power while restricting the extraction and export of fossil fuels. He simply called warming an emergency.
