Press Releases

On Friday, March 22, Earth Day, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and more than two dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), sent a letter to President Biden urging him to declare a national climate emergency. In the letter, the members write that the scope and urgency of the climate crisis merits the full power of the executive branch in the form of an emergency declaration. An emergency declaration would support accelerating the transition to a clean energy economy, provide needed resources for communities being disproportionately impacted by climate change, and protect millions of vulnerable Americans by strengthening emergency preparedness planning. 

“We share your belief that climate change is not only a crisis, but also an unprecedented opportunity to revitalize communities across the United States. We applaud that your administration has worked to prioritize climate since day one, despite many challenges. Given the scope and urgency of the crisis, we request that you move to use the full power of the executive branch to combat climate change by declaring a national climate emergency,” they wrote.

“We do not request this declaration lightly,” the members said. “We recognize the gravity of invoking a president’s emergency powers. If ever there was ever an emergency that demanded this level of ambitious action, it is the climate crisis. We urge you to act boldly, treating this like the emergency it is, by declaring a national climate emergency.”

Pingree, who serves as Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Environment, is a cosponsor of the National Climate Emergency Act, which would direct the President to declare a national climate emergency, ensuring large-scale, government mitigation, action, and investments to fight climate change. 

Pingree has championed a bold agenda to combat the climate crisis, including introducing legislation to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. agriculture by 2040 and cosponsoring over 40 bills in the 117th Congress to combat the climate crisis, including the visionary Green New Deal. Pingree recently attended the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, to help reassert American leadership on addressing the climate crisis.

Full text of the letter is available below and online here.

Dear President Biden,

We share your belief that climate change is not only a crisis, but also an unprecedented opportunity to revitalize communities across the United States. We applaud that your administration has worked to prioritize climate since day one, despite many challenges. Given the scope and urgency of the crisis, we request that you move to use the full power of the executive branch to combat climate change by declaring a national climate emergency. Such a declaration would unlock the broad powers of the National Emergency Act (NEA), the Defense Production Act (DPA), and the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to revitalize the economy, create millions of new, well-paying American jobs, and invest in healthy and resilient communities.

Under the NEA, we can reinstate the ban on crude oil exports, suspend offshore fossil fuel leases, curb fossil fuel imports, and halt the hundreds of billions of dollars in investments in fossil fuel projects abroad. Reining in our reliance on dirty fossil fuels is a critical part of protecting and ensuring the health of our communities, particularly Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other communities of color who disproportionately suffer at the hands of polluters. In addition, invoking the Stafford Act and DPA will allow your administration to take essential steps toward strengthening our emergency preparedness, a critical component of dealing with the realities of climate change for millions of vulnerable Americans in thousands of high-risk communities. The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urges us to do just that: adapt, while protecting our most vulnerable communities.

A national emergency declaration will also allow the United States to mobilize domestic industry, ramp up domestic manufacturing of clean energy technologies, and deploy resilient energy infrastructure. The recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine underscores the need to shift from reliance on foreign oil and gas toward domestic renewable energy. We have the tools to build up a stronger renewable energy industry in America, generating millions of high-quality American jobs and rejuvenating our post-pandemic economy.

We urge you to support the National Climate Emergency Act of 2021 (H.R. 794/ S. 938), introduced by Representatives Blumenauer and Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Sanders, which mandates a national climate emergency declaration and outlines the federal response, including principles of a just transition.

We do not request this declaration lightly. We recognize the gravity of invoking a president’s emergency powers. If ever there was ever an emergency that demanded this level of ambitious action, it is the climate crisis. We urge you to act boldly, treating this like the emergency it is, by declaring a national climate emergency.

Sincerely,

###