Environmental activists rally in New York City.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed sweeping executive orders to force the federal government to plan for and respond to the urgent threat of a warming planet, laying out his historic vision for how the United States can once again become a global climate leader.
The moves will stop new fossil fuel leases on public lands, boost renewable energy development and conservation, as well as create new government offices and interagency groups to prioritize job creation, cleaning up pollution, and environmental justice.
Since taking office last week, Biden and his Cabinet nominees have repeatedly said that tackling the climate crisis is among their top priorities. With these new actions, Biden is detailing how he plans to make that happen by making the federal government central to the response.
President Joe Biden signed a sprawling set of executive orders on Wednesday ordering federal agencies to procure carbon-free energy and electric vehicles, spur commercialization of clean energy technologies, accelerate clean energy generation and transmission projects and ensure that disadvantaged communities get a fair share of the ensuing economic and environmental benefits.
Wednesday’s executive orders are the latest step in the Biden-Harris administration’s aggressive early actions seeking to combat climate change and reverse Trump administration policies seen as harming that goal. Their overarching aim is to “center the climate crisis” in U.S. foreign policy and national security, and to create a “whole-of-government approach” to shifting the country from reliance on fossil fuels to sources of low- or no-carbon energy, according to a White House fact sheet.
Biden to halt new oil and gas leases on federal lands and take other climate-related action
January 27, 2021 8:42 AM CNN
Equipment at a fracking well is pictured at Capitan Energy on May 7, 2020 in Culberson County, Texas. - For oil and gas producers in the world s largest oil field, straddling the border between Texas and New Mexico, the losses due to the collapse of oil prices are colossal. (Photo by Paul Ratje / AFP) (Photo by PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images)
(CNN) President Joe Biden will sign several executive actions related to the climate crisis on Wednesday, including one directing the secretary of the interior to pause on entering into new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or offshore waters.