Energy industry fears Biden to declare climate emergency, seize powers like COVID pandemic

U.S. Oil and Gas Association’s president warned such a move would be a COVID 2.0.

President Joe Biden appears to be facing increasing demands to declare a climate emergency, like the one declared for the COVID-19 pandemic that had a devastating impact on the country, warns a top advocate for the U.S. oil and gas industry.

“They’re leaning to that direction,” U.S. Oil and Gas Association President Tim Stewart recently told Just the News. “If you grant the president’s emergency powers to declare a climate emergency, it’s just like COVID.”

Stewart also said such a declaration would give the president “vast and unchecked authority to shut down everything from communications to infrastructure.”

He said infrastructure would include water and electricity, and that Biden also could freeze assets under such a declaration.

The White House COVID emergency that was declared by President Trump in 2020 resulted in the closing of U.S. borders and required a vaccination for federal government employees. In the following months and years, with many businesses also shuttered, the country plunged into record unemployment and inflation.

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