Jeffrey T. Kuhner, July 28, 2022Joe Biden is on the verge of declaring a national climate emergency. He is under growing pressure from radical Democrats to circumvent Congress and invoke emergency, quasi-dictatorial powers to impose the Left’s climate agenda. If he crosses that Rubicon, Biden should — and will — be impeached.
Liberals are furious at Sen. Joe Manchin, West Virginia Democrat, for blocking Biden’s Build Back Better legislation in Congress. Manchin is right. Spending trillions on a Green New Deal in the midst of historic inflation would bankrupt the economy and trigger hyper-inflation — a recipe for economic disaster and national ruin.
“With legislative climate options now closed,” said Rhode Island Democrat Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, “it’s now time for executive Beast Mode.”
In other words, it’s time to go authoritarian. Should Biden seize emergency powers, the White House is leaking that he will ration gas and electricity, confiscate fertile farm land, possibly slaughter cattle and take over auto companies. He will do everything possible to slash carbon emissions and tackle the alleged “climate crisis” — a crisis Biden claims poses an immediate “existential threat” to America and the planet.
Hence, progressives are demanding Biden shred the Constitution and roll over Congress by issuing executive emergency fiats. They are pressuring him to end shale fracking, stop all U.S. oil exports, ban oil and natural gas drilling in the outer continental shelf — including terminating existing leases and illegally abrogating business contracts — and invoke the Defense Production Act to unilaterally convert car factories into making solar panels, lithium batteries and electric vehicles. In short, Biden seeks to use Chinese-style central planning to forge a green socialist economy.
At a minimum, Biden’s actions would reduce domestic oil production by nearly 2 million barrels a day. It would also send global oil prices skyrocketing. The result: Americans will be paying $8, $9 and maybe even $10 a gallon at the pump. It would crater the middle class, plunge the U.S. into a deep recession and trigger massive inflation.
And for what? Even if one believes in man-made climate change (which I do not), Biden’s destructive economic policies would not come close to offsetting the carbon emissions from countries such as China and India. The dirty secret is America is powerless when it comes to controlling or influencing global temperatures — a fact acknowledged by Biden’s own climate czar John Kerry. As Kerry has admitted, even if the U.S. went to a “net zero” carbon economy, it would do nothing to curb alleged “global warming.” The reason: China, India and Brazil are by far the world’s biggest emitters of carbon dioxide. They not only have no intention of reducing their use of fossil fuels; they are building dozens of more coal plants to meet growing domestic energy demands.
America would be committing economic suicide — for nothing. It would be one of the greatest self-inflicted wounds in history. And it would guarantee the end of America as a world superpower, thereby paving the way for China’s global dominance.
Most importantly, however, Biden’s declaration of a national climate emergency would mark the end of our constitutional republic. The Supreme Court recently ruled in West Virginia v. EPA that federal agencies cannot overstep their authority in regulating carbon emissions without express approval granted by Congress. Invoking a climate emergency would be the act of a wannabe-dictator. It violates the separation of powers; subverts the Constitution; tramples upon Congress and the Supreme Court; abrogates democratic assent; and represents a flagrant, severe abuse of presidential authority. In short, his actions would be not only immoral and unconstitutional, but criminal.
The only proper response is impeachment. If Biden is foolish enough to go down this dark, authoritarian road, then the American people will — and should — rise up and demand he be impeached and removed from office. Republicans, independents and even some Democrats will not stand for it. This will be Biden’s waterloo. His presidency will be finished.
Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at WorldTribune.com and the host of “The Kuhner Report” weekdays 6-10 a.m. EST on WRKO AM-680 in Boston.
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