Green energy groups want President Joe Biden to invoke the Defense Production Act and build more renewable energy technologies in response to strained energy markets, intensifying liberal pressure on the White House to avoid endorsing fossil fuels as a solution to high prices.
More than 200 environmental and other liberal organizations said they support Biden’s decision to ban Russian fuel imports, a move meant to put the pinch on Moscow in protest of its war in Ukraine, but urged him to avoid “short-sighted policies” such as enabling more oil and gas production in the face of a worsening energy outlook for U.S. consumers.
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Instead, Biden should employ the DPA, as both he and former President Donald Trump did for ventilators and vaccines in response to COVID-19, to “address the climate emergency and prevent further mass suffering” associated with climate change by facilitating the production of more wind turbines and solar panels, heat pumps to replace gas-burning devices, and energy storage and weatherization technologies, they said.
“Putin’s ability to wreak such destruction on Ukraine is predicated on global dependence on fossil fuels,” the groups, which include Greenpeace USA, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club, said in a letter sent to Biden on Wednesday.
“Using the DPA and your other executive powers in this manner won’t just help Ukraine, the rest of Europe, and the U.S. in the short term,” the letter said. “It will preempt future crises sparked by oligarchs, strongmen, and the climate emergency, and position the U.S. to be a global leader in the just and renewable energy transition that will leave no worker behind.”
Prices for oil and other commodities have been elevated for months but have spiked since Russia invaded Ukraine, driving the U.S. national average per-gallon gas price to above $4.25 on Wednesday, per AAA, a record in nominal terms.
Benchmark oil prices spiked further Tuesday in response to Biden’s decision to halt energy imports from Russia and stood above $130 per barrel for part of Wednesday’s trading session, although it is down nearly 12% over its opening price as of this report’s publication.
For all of this, Biden has been under immense pressure from Republican lawmakers to encourage domestic oil and gas production, all while his green constituencies have been pressuring him to do just the opposite and stay the course on his campaign promises to end new leasing of public lands for fossil fuel extraction.
Environmental groups, disappointed by the continued approval of permits for drilling on federal land and a now-defunct record offshore lease sale, had been pressuring Biden to more aggressively check fossil fuel production and grow the nation’s green energy portfolio before Russia’s invasion upended energy markets.
Natalie Mebane, senior director of climate solutions for The Wilderness Society, said following Biden’s State of the Union address last week that it’s time for the administration “to make a comprehensive plan for public lands that ensures they are part of the climate solution instead of contributing to the problem.”
The administration has put forward a view that more wind, solar, and other lower-emitting energy sources are ultimately the answer to volatile energy prices, but White House officials and others in the administration have said in recent days that more production is needed right now to support markets.
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“I hope your investors are saying these words to you as well: In this moment of crisis, we need more supply,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said during remarks at a major energy conference in Houston on Wednesday. “Right now, we need oil and gas production to rise to meet current demand.”
