On Wednesday (July 20), President Joe Biden announced he would be implementing several executive actions to combat climate change.
The President’s decision to use executive actions to enact democrats’ climate change policies comes after Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) revealed he wouldn’t support a reconciliation package that included energy and climate before the November midterms.
One of Biden’s executive order actions includes an effort to “protect communities from extreme heat and dangerous climate impacts.” In 2022, the initiative will receive $2.3 billion in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program; programs with the objective to help communities “increase resilience to heat waves, drought, wildfires, flood, hurricanes and other hazards by preparing before disaster strikes.”
Other energy proposals being prioritized through Biden’s executive actions are an effort to reduce the cost of cooling in communities that regularly experience extreme heat.
The executive action coincides with the White House issuing guidance to assist tribes, states, and territories access funding opportunities for projects like community cooling centers and plans to get more cooling equipment to those within the community.
As part of Biden’s elaborate “clean energy” project, the administration will also be considering developing wind power project, which would be located along the Gulf of Mexico and could have the potential to power 3 million homes.
Biden has also instructed the Secretary of the Interior to “advance clean energy development,” with projects proposed off the coast of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
Biden has touted these projects as a way to ensure that “southeast states will be able to benefit from good-paying jobs in the burgeoning offshore wind industry.”
