Sunrise: Biden, Declare a Climate Emergency

Following President Joe Biden's press conference on climate in Somerset, MA, Sunrise Movement Executive Director, Varshini Prakash, released the following statement:

"It's good to see the Biden administration taking these executive actions. They are absolutely necessary and will make real impacts in people's lives. Today, Biden said that climate change is an emergency, but we are sick of watching this administration fail to treat it as such. We are a year and half into the Biden presidency and all we've seen are a handful of executive actions, and the slow death of climate legislation in Congress. Young people are tired of receiving scraps from our government. President Biden must immediately declare a climate emergency, and do everything in his executive power to confront the climate crisis.

"Declaring a climate emergency is a no-brainer. At a time when our rights are being ripped away, wildfires displace and kill people all over the world, and faith in government is wavering, young people are asking - what will it take for Democrats to fight for us? This moment is critical for the Biden Presidency - he can either take action and deliver for millions of people, or he will forever be known as the president who condemned my generation to an unlivable world."

Sunrise Movement has been calling on President Biden to:

• End the practice of leasing public lands and waters for fossil fuel production,
• Stop the issue of permits for any new fossil fuel infrastructure, including pipelines, petrochemical plants, and export terminals, especially Line 3, Line 5 and the Mountain Valley Pipeline,
• Declare a Climate Emergency,
• Update and strengthen outdated standards limiting particulate matter, ozone, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, mercury, coal ash, and tailpipe emissions, as well as lead and copper rules preventing contamination of drinking water,
• Finalize new methane standards for new and existing oil and gas operations, and make these standards strong enough to cut methane pollution at least 65 percent below 2012 levels by 2025, and
• Direct the EPA to designate greenhouse pollutants as criteria air pollutants and set a science-based national pollution cap under the Clean Air Act.

Notably, President Biden delivered the speech in Somerset, MA, the spot where Varshini Prakash was arrested when she was 19 years old in the successful effort to shut down the coal plant.