Dear John,

This September, as Oregon wildfires raged, I drove more than 600 miles up and down our state and never once broke free from a thick cloud of hazardous smoke. I saw towns that had been completely incinerated. I heard the heartbreak, fear and frustration of Oregonians who fled their homes to save their lives. Some of them lost everything -- more startling reminders of the price Americans are already paying as climate chaos continues to spiral out of control.

The climate crisis is one of the biggest emergencies that our country has ever faced, and our time is running out. And while the Senate majority seems dead set on continuing to stop any climate action in an effort to help their friends in the fossil fuel industry, there are a number of tools that will be available to the Biden administration to take bold executive action -- if President-elect Biden chooses to do so.  

That’s why I’ve called on President-elect Biden to declare a national climate emergency in an op-ed that ran in The Washington Post. Click here to check it out.

Declaring the climate crisis a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act would not only send a powerful signal about the urgency of bold action, it would unlock powers that allow our nation to take significant, concrete actions regardless of congressional gridlock. Examples include redirecting spending to build out renewable energy systems, implementing large-scale clean transportation solutions and financing distributed energy projects to boost climate resiliency -- all of which would help safeguard our communities and slash harmful pollution.

Biden could also invoke the Defense Production Act, which would complement a national emergency declaration and help address the national security threats posed by our climate crisis. These powers would allow the Biden administration to take essential steps toward strengthening our emergency preparedness, such as constructing resilient energy infrastructure and mobilizing domestic industry to ramp up manufacturing of clean energy technologies. These are necessary steps to protect Americans from the deluge of violent storms and extreme weather events that are on the horizon. Plus, spawning a robust clean energy industry could generate millions of high-quality American jobs vital to rejuvenating our post-covid economy.

We need bold executive action that treats this crisis -- quite literally -- as the emergency it is. Please know that I’ll be doing everything I can to push the administration to deliver that kind of action.

All my best,
Jeff