The severe heat engulfing the Northern Hemisphere, causing wildfires, deaths, and destruction didn’t come on us unexpectedly. We were given plenty of advanced warning.
It is hard to talk about the heat wave affecting one-third of the U.S. population without talking about the extreme heatwave that has literally fried Europe – or the wildfires raging in Western Canada.
Here in the U.S., our two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell continue to lose water, the levels inching closer and closer to that “dead pool” mark where the hydroelectric power plants will not be able to generate electricity.
The heatwave we are experiencing today is straining our power grid to the point that if excessively high temperatures continue, we may see rolling blackouts. What we are experiencing is a growing and urgent economic and national security threat.
System operators have been warning in recent weeks that the electric grid reliability could be at risk amid high summer demand and possible supply reductions. As early as in the middle of May, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) warned that “extreme weather heightens reliability risks this summer”.
A national emergency or not?
President Joe Biden is expected to announce today some “moderate measures” he will introduce by executive order to address this crisis caused by climate change. Biden is not planning on declaring a “national emergency,” although I think it is needed.
Biden will make the announcements while visiting a now-defunct coal-fired power plant, called Brayton Point, in Somerset, Massachusetts. The site is expected to be turned into a manufacturing plant that will produce transmission cables for Massachusetts’ offshore wind industry, according to the White House.
Under federal law, the declaration of a climate emergency would give Biden immediate authority to take numerous larger measures, including reinstating a ban on crude oil exports and suspending offshore oil and gas drilling.
Last week, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., effectively stopped negotiations over climate spending and taxes, killing any chances that Biden’s climate agenda would move forward. Manchin is one of the biggest backers of fossil fuels within the Democratic caucus, and he has blamed persistently high inflation for his hesitation to go along with another spending package.
The Associated Press points out that a declaration of a climate emergency would be the same as the one issued by former President Donald Trump boosting the construction of a southern border wall
It would allow Biden to redirect spending to accelerate renewable energy such as wind and solar power and speed the nation’s transition away from fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas.
“I think given the global crisis that we’re facing, given the inability of Congress to address this existential threat, I think the White House has got to use all of the resources and tools that they can,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. On a climate emergency, “that’s something that I’ve called for, a long time ago.”
