Biden’s climate executive actions, Fauci presser

Here’s what’s happening in politics Jan. 27, 2021. Check back often for updates.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday is set to issue another raft of executive actions tied to combatting climate change, prioritizing science and evidence-based policy across federal agencies and pausing oil drilling on public lands. It’s the latest move to unwind the environmental policies of Trump, who challenged the basis of climate change and had former energy industry lobbyists running key environmental agencies.

Biden has pledged to be the most aggressive president on climate change, which he has called “an existential threat.” His goal is to decarbonize the U.S. power sector by 2035 on the way to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The U.S. emits the second largest amount of carbon dioxide in the world after China.

The actions he’ll sign Wednesday afternoon will also elevate climate change as a national security concern, commit to the goal of conserving at least 30% of all federal land and water by 2030, which stands at 12% today, and build on his economic policy agenda to direct federal agencies to “procure carbon pollution-free electricity and clean, zero-emission vehicles to create good-paying, union jobs and stimulate clean energy industries.” 

Part of that order will be ensuring the federal purchases are line with Biden’s “Buy American” initiative aimed at boosting the federal government’s purchases of U.S.-manufactured goods. 

Republicans who say Biden’s climate policies are cost-prohibitive, will hurt American businesses and eliminate oil and gas jobs.

The movefollows Biden’s decisions last week to suspend for 60 days new drilling permits on federal lands and waters, halt construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and rejoin the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The latest orders won’t stop energy firms from acting on existing oil and gas leases in the western U.S. and the Gulf of Mexico, some of which were issued in the final weeks of the Trump administration.

The action will also created a National Climate Task Force, which will feature leaders from across 21 federal agencies and departments and formally announce a climate summit of world leaders on Earth Day, April 22. 

The League of Conservation Voters applauded the plan, describing it as a “whole of government approach that puts bold climate action, clean energy, and environmental justice at the heart of their domestic and foreign policy agenda.”

“Congress must complement these executive actions with bold legislation that puts our economy on a path to recovery by making transformative investments in healthy, equitable, safe communities powered by clean energy,” the organization said in a statement. 

—Courtney Subramanian and Ledyard King 

White House COVID Response Team to host first news conference

The White House announced the first of what will be regular coronavirus response briefings starting Wednesday at 11 a.m.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, Andy Slavitt, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, and Jeff Zients will participate. Missing will be recently retired Dr. Deborah Birx, former coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, who became nationally known for her role in press conferences in the Trump administration. 

During a recent interview on CBS “Face the Nation” Birx said she “always considered” resigning from the White House coronavirus task force, and that someone had been delivering a “parallel set of data” to Trump.

The coronavirus task force press briefings had been a daily occurrence at the beginning of the pandemic, but then became increasingly sparse as Trump dismissed them just a few weeks in.

Biden announced Tuesday the U.S. has reached an agreement to purchase an additional 200 million coronavirus vaccine doses, a boost that means the U.S. will have enough supply to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of summer or beginning of fall.

—Savannah Behrmann 

Harris to ceremonially swear in Blinken as Secretary of State

Around noon on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris will ceremonially swear in Antony Blinken as Secretary of State at the White House.

In a strong show of bipartisan support, the Senate confirmed Blinken78 to 22 on Tuesday, including “yes” votes from several top Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. 

More:Senate confirms Antony Blinken as Biden’s secretary of state

Blinken was sworn in at the State Department Tuesday afternoon, saying it was a “full circle” moment: “I started at the @StateDept in 1993, and, today, it’s the honor of my life to lead the Department’s women and men as the 71st Secretary of State.”

Tuesday night, Blinken spoke with Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, about the “shared interest in security and economic integration, as well as our focus on an orderly and humane approach to migration,” according to spokesperson Ned Price.

—Deirdre Shesgreen