WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will announce executive action to confront climate change after a key senator blocked legislation, but he’s holding off for now on an emergency decree that would allow him to marshal sweeping powers — and billions of federal dollars — against global warming.
Biden will outline his moves in a speech Wednesday at a shuttered coal-fired power plant in Massachusetts, vowing that he won’t allow a congressional impasse on climate legislation to prevent urgent work to slow rising global temperatures, according to people familiar with the matter.
White House officials are still weighing a separate declaration that climate change is a national emergency — a step that would unlock broad executive powers to propel clean-energy construction, restrict oil drilling and curb fossil fuel use. The emergency order is one of several tactics now under deliberation, as the White House weighs strategies to demonstrate Biden’s commitment to clean energy without jeopardizing ongoing talks on health care legislation in Congress.
