Tag: executive orders
Exclusive: Biden To Announce Executive Orders On Climate Crisis​​

Exclusive: Biden To Announce Executive Orders On Climate Crisis​​

By Jarrett Renshaw and Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- President Joe Biden plans to announce new executive orders aimed at tackling the climate crisis on Wednesday during a trip to Somerset, Massachusetts, sources familiar with his plans told Reuters.

The announcement is unlikely to include the declaration of a climate emergency, which would enable the use of the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of a wide range of renewable energy products and systems.

Senate Democrats and environmental groups have been calling for such a declaration in light of news that Democratic Senator Joe Manchin was not ready to support key climate provisions in Congress.

A White House official said on Tuesday that Biden has made it clear that if the Senate did not act, he will. "We are considering all options and no decision has been made," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Biden campaigned on tough action on climate change in his presidential campaign and pledged in international climate negotiations to cut climate pollution by 50 percent by 2030 and reach 100 percent clean electricity by 2035.

But his climate agenda has been derailed by several major setbacks, including clinching enough congressional support to pass crucial climate and clean energy measures in a federal budget bill, record-setting gasoline prices and global energy market disruption caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Supreme Court, in a decision issued earlier this month, also signaled that federal agencies cannot undertake major policy action on climate and other areas without express consent from Congress.

Democrats are discussing the path forward for major climate action on Capitol Hill today, said Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Carper didn't answer a question about Biden declaring a climate emergency but said he thinks there are other issues the Senate could move forward on, including methane emission reduction and tax provisions for nuclear power and carbon capture and sequestration.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Valerie Volcovici; additional reporting by David Morgan, Doina Chiacu and Nandita Bose; editing by Chris Gallagher, Doina Chiacu and Jonathan Oatis)

WATCH: Biden Outlines Major Initiative Against “Existential Threat” Of Climate Change

WATCH: Biden Outlines Major Initiative Against “Existential Threat” Of Climate Change

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

In a speech Wednesday outlining his new executive actions aimed at confronting the "existential threat" of the climate crisis, President Joe Biden said he plans to ask the Democrat-controlled Congress to pass legislation eliminating the tens of billions in taxpayer subsidies the federal government continues to hand Big Oil even as the planetary emergency wreaks havoc in the U.S. and across the globe.

"Unlike previous administrations, I don't think the federal government should give handouts to Big Oil to the tune of $40 billion in fossil fuel subsidies," said Biden. "I'm gonna be going to the Congress and asking them to eliminate those subsidies."

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Trump

Biden May Swiftly Reverse Trump Policies By Executive Order

Donald Trump's dearth of legislative accomplishments will make it much easier for President-elect Joe Biden to dismantle most of his policies — even if Democrats do not control the Senate.

"All that stuff was done administratively through the [president's] executive authority, and so a new executive can basically reject those and start from scratch," a source told CBS News on Wednesday.

According to the Washington Post, Biden is planning quick action to reverse executive actions taken by Trump.

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Challenge To Trump Travel Ban Moves Forward In Two Courts

Challenge To Trump Travel Ban Moves Forward In Two Courts

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The most consequential legal challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban will proceed on two tracks in the next few days, including a U.S. appeals court vote that could reveal some judges who disagree with their colleagues on the bench and support the arguments behind the new president’s most controversial executive order.

In a Seattle federal courtroom, the state of Washington will attempt to probe the president’s motive in drafting his Jan. 27 order, while in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, judges will decide whether to reconsider an appeal in that same case decided last week.

Trump’s directive, which he said was necessary to protect the United States from attacks by Islamist militants, barred people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days. Refugees were banned for 120 days, except those from Syria, who were banned indefinitely.

The ban was backed by around half of Americans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, but triggered protests across the country and caused chaos at some U.S. and overseas airports.

U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle suspended the order after its legality was challenged by Washington state, eliciting a barrage of angry Twitter messages from Trump against the judge and the court system. That ruling was upheld by a three-judge panel at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last week, raising questions about Trump’s next step.

At a Seattle court hearing on Monday, Robart said he would move forward with discovery in the case, meaning the request and exchange of information pertinent to the case between the opposing parties.

Meanwhile, an unidentified judge on the 9th Circuit last week requested that the court’s 25 full-time judges vote on whether the temporary restraining order imposed on Trump’s travel ban should be reconsidered by an 11-judge panel, known as en banc review. The 9th Circuit asked both sides to file briefs by Thursday.

Since judges appointed by Democrats hold an 18-7 edge on the 9th Circuit, legal experts say it is unlikely a majority will disagree with the court’s earlier ruling and want it reconsidered.

Arthur Hellman, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who has studied the 9th Circuit, noted that one of the three judges who issued the original ruling was appointed by George W. Bush.

Even if the en banc vote fails, however, judges on the 9th Circuit who disagree with last week’s ruling will be able to publicly express their disagreement in court filings, which could help create a record bolstering Trump’s position.

Meanwhile, the government has signaled that it is considering issuing a new executive order to replace the original one. In that case, it could tell the 9th Circuit later this week that it does not want en banc review, because the case would be moot.

“You would think Jeff Sessions would do whatever he had to do to get this case ended as soon as possible,” Hellman said, referring to the recently appointed U.S. attorney general.

IMAGE: Tareq Aziz (L) and his brother Ammar Aziz (2nd L), Yemeni nationals who were delayed entry into the U.S. because of the recent travel ban, smile as they are reunited with their family at Washington Dulles International Airport. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst