President Joe Biden took a jaunt up the East Coast in Air Force One on Wednesday to warn about the dangers of excessive fossil fuel consumption and climate change, dubbing it a “clear and present danger.”
The president flew in the highly customized aircraft — which carries 53,611 gallons of fuel — to Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport. He then took a car to Somerset, Massachusetts, to deliver a 20-minute speech on what he says is a “climate emergency.”
“Extreme weather disrupts supply chains, causing delays and shortages for consumers and businesses,” Biden said from the closed-down coal-powered energy plant, Brayton Point. “Climate change is literally an existential threat to our nation and to the world.” A new wind turbine manufacturing plant will soon be built at Brayton Point, which is why the president’s team chose the location for his speech.
Biden also blasted Congress for failing to craft legislation to address climate change adequately. Recently, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) indicated he would not support his party’s climate proposals, which he says would be disastrous for his home state of West Virginia.
“This is an emergency. An emergency,” the president continued on Wednesday. “I said last week, and I say it again loud and clear: as president, I’ll use my executive powers to combat climate the climate crisis in the absence of congressional action.”
He also announced that he would sign several new executive orders directing billions of dollars toward clean energy initiatives. As part of those actions, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will use $2.3 billion toward the Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities program, which will help thousands of communities.
Likewise, he also said that the Department of Interior would propose a massive wind farm covering 700,000 acres in the Gulf of Mexico, among other initiatives.
At the beginning of his remarks, Biden praised his climate czar and one of his “dearest friends” John Kerry, for the “great job, leading our international Special Presidential Envoy on Climate, traveling the world, and talking with an awful lot of people, and talking them into moving more of they’ve been doing.”
Biden’s comments come a day after Fox News reported that Kerry’s private jet has flown nearly 50 trips and expelled 715,886 pounds, or 325 metric tons, of carbon since Biden became president.
In 2019, Kerry flew to Iceland on a private jet to accept an award for his activism against global warming. He defended his travel at the time by saying it was the “only choice for somebody like me who is traveling the world to win this battle.”
In reaction to the latest numbers on the Kerry family’s hot air emissions, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) tweeted, “Smug, hypocritical, hammering middle-class families, and now this: John Kerry is one of the single biggest polluters & GHG emitters in the world. Once again, I call for him to resign.”
Smug, hypocritical, hammering middle-class families, and now this:
John Kerry is one of the single biggest polluters & GHG emitters in the world.
Once again, I call for him to resign.https://t.co/Qbr1weB9YX
— Sen. Dan Sullivan (@SenDanSullivan) July 19, 2022
Just before the president began speaking Wednesday afternoon, Sullivan added, “The best thing President Biden could do to help the climate is to ground John Kerry’s private plane.”
The best thing President Biden could do to help the climate is to ground John Kerry’s private plane.
— Sen. Dan Sullivan (@SenDanSullivan) July 20, 2022