WASHINGTON – Today, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva released the following statement:

“The recent executive action by President Biden is a step forward, but underwhelming. These actions aim to mitigate our current climate crisis that will help working people with its impacts, but there’s significant work to be done to address the root causes of climate change.  States are experiencing sweltering temperatures. Catastrophic drought, wildfires and hurricanes are intensifying. Workers are collapsing and dying from the heat. Infrastructure is buckling. The truth is that the planet is on fire, and we’re not prepared for what’s to come.”

“President Biden ran on creating a new economy building back based on the tenants of environmental and climate justice to ensure we have a country where future generations can live and thrive. While the House passed the Build Back Better Act to further address growing carbon emissions, the Senate has failed to pass this legislation providing transformative funding and initiatives to jump start our transition to renewable energy and clean transportation. Senator Manchin, a man whose family enriched themselves off coal, refuses to act and continues to string along the President’s climate agenda in the reconciliation process recklessly endangering our climate future. We can’t wait on Senator Manchin much longer.”

“We need bold and swift action from the President to reach our climate goals and to guarantee a livable climate for our future and future generations. President Biden should declare a national climate emergency immediately and use his executive authority to halt the expansion of fossil fuel projects, restrict and reject new fossil fuel and carbon producing project permits that exasperate climate change impacts and curb our emissions. He should use his executive authority to utilize a whole-of-government approach to end our dependency on fossil fuels and meet our domestic and international climate goals. Now is the time to act on climate. ”