Commentary: The Climate Agenda Is What’s Melting

By Steve Milloy

President Biden is being urged to declare a climate emergency, which may happen as early as this week. If he does, the irony will be rich, as the 911 call should really be for the climate agenda.

The president apparently hopes to take advantage of the ongoing record-setting European heat wave and string of wildfires, and an ongoing heat wave in the U.S. Midwest.

While it certainly is very hot in Europe and the Midwest, it is relatively cool elsewhere. The unfortunate reality for Biden’s planned exploitation is that today’s average global temperature per the University of Maine is a mere 0.2C warmer than the average from 1979-2000. It’s called “global warming,” and yet there’s really not much of that occurring.

We also know that heat waves are not associated with carbon dioxide emissions. The frequency and intensity of heat waves has dramatically declined in the U.S. over the past 100 years despite ever-rising emissions, per the National Climate Assessment conducted by the Obama-Biden administration.

And although the media is trying to fan the flames of climate hysteria with images of Europe burning, the reality is that wildfires in Europe have been declining since the 1980s despite ever- increasing CO₂ emissions.

And let’s not forget that despite lots of emissions over the years, June 2022 was cooler than June 2002 and there has been no global warming in seven years and 10 months.

But it gets worse for Joe Biden and his climate agenda.

Last week’s New York Times/Siena College poll reports that a mere one percent of voters prioritize climate. Climate scored zero percent among Latinos, Republicans, and the 45-64 age group. This shouldn’t have been a surprise to the Times since a Democrat pollster told the paper last year that climate was an issue that only “weird, very liberal white” people care about.

All this is occurring against a backdrop where the Supreme Court has ruled that the EPA doesn’t have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases from coal plants; Sen. Joe Manchin has now twice pulled the plug on Biden’s Build Back better climate agenda; and the world is in the worst energy and inflation crises in 40 years.

If Joe Biden declares a climate emergency and acts upon it, he will only make things worse.

Although presidential powers over emissions are extremely limited, this exercise would only send gas prices even higher. President Biden could, for example, halt crude oil exports, or limit oil and gas drilling on federal lands. Neither would make a difference to the climate – and neither would likely stand up in federal court. Both would cause oil prices to increase.

Biden may declare a climate emergency, but there is no reason for it, and there is nothing he could legally or beneficially accomplish by himself anyway. The good news for Biden, if he cares to embrace it, is that the public doesn’t care about climate amid all our other ongoing problems.

Take the exit, Joe.