Activists hail Biden’s use of security powers to boost clean energy

theguardian.com:

Environmental groups have welcomed Joe Biden’s invoking of national security powers to rapidly expand the production of clean energy technology as a significant advance in the effort to curb dangerous climate breakdown.

Biden has triggered the Defense Production Act, a cold war-era law used compel businesses to ramp up production of certain materials to aid national security, to boost the output of solar panels, building insulation, transformers for power grids and heat pumps, which are used to efficiently heat and cool homes.

The US president has also provided a two-year exemption to solar panel companies from tariffs on imported parts, easing the flow of technology from China and other countries for use in the US, a country where only 2.8% of electricity comes from solar power.

The moves have been applauded by climate activists who have pressed for Biden to use the breadth of his presidential powers to act on the climate crisis. Activists have sharply criticized the president in recent months over the continuing failure to pass major climate legislation through an evenly divided senate, as well as Biden’s calls for bolstered oil production to offset gasoline prices that have risen amid the war in Ukraine.

“We are in a climate emergency, an emergency we can only confront when our government steps up and launches a second-world-war scale mobilization to justly transition to renewable energy,” said said Varshini Prakash, executive director at the youth-led Sunrise Movement. “This is a great step by the administration, and we urgently hope to see even more significant executive actions follow.”

Biden has declined to declare a climate emergency, as has been done in countries such as the UK, or to set a phase-out of fossil fuels.