Climate-alarmist senators are eager to drag a potential Joe Biden administration into a new “green” era and they’re prepared to use some drastic measures to do so. And if a President Biden doesn’t move aggressively enough on climate for their liking, some of those senators are prepared to put some extreme pressure on the possible incoming president.
Some of those Democrats are going so far as to threaten to obstruct Biden’s nominees if his policies aren’t climate-friendly enough.
Leading this charge is Rhode Island’s Sheldon Whitehouse (shown), who has been a leader of the climate alarmists in Congress. Whitehouse, considered a centrist Democrat on some issues, is known as a deal maker in the Senate, so his involvement might suggest that there is broad support among Democrats and, perhaps, a few Republicans.
“I think there are quite a considerable number of senators who keenly believe that we missed huge opportunities in the Obama administration, that the Trump administration was a wasteland in which we went backwards and that the urgency of this moment is incredibly compelling and we just won’t tolerate a casual, insipid approach to dealing with this vital issue,” Whitehouse told Axios recently.
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Asked what he might do if Biden doesn’t act swiftly and decisively enough, Whitehouse said, “We’ve got a lot of officials who are going to need to get confirmed by the Senate,” hinting that he would be up for obstructing Biden’s nominees from the Left.
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is also prepared to hold Biden’s feet to the fire when it comes to global warming. Merkley claims that Biden owes the climate lobby decisive actions in return for their support in the election.
“Part of what propelled President-elect Biden to his resounding victory was his commitment to addressing the climate crisis head on, and I will be strongly encouraging the incoming administration to deliver on that promise in every possible way.”
Other senators who might look to pressure a possible Biden administration to commit to radical climate action would include Green New Deal co-author Ed Markey (D-Mass.), former Biden primary foe Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and the runner-up to Biden for the Democrat nomination, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
What might such decisive action look like? Obviously elements of Markey’s and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal — a budget-busting rabid environmentalist wish list — would be on the table. But one troubling aspect of their climate action might entail viciously attacking what climate alarmists call “deniers.”
Whitehouse, for one, has openly called for initiating what amounts to an inquisition against climate realists — whom he says promulgate “climate denialism and climate obstruction and political ownership of the Republican Party.”
Recently, Whitehouse threatened those who don’t toe the climate-emergency line with investigations should Democrats succeed in taking both of the Senate seats up for grabs in Georgia. Winning those two seats would give the Democrats a de-facto majority in the Senate at 50 seats controlled by each party with a potential Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.
Whitehouse has said that, given control of the Senate, Democrats should launch investigations targeting climate realists and calling them to testify. According to Whitehouse, such people could even be called to testify before grand juries.
“If we are not vigorously investigating that with all of the tools at our disposal, then that machinery will continue undisturbed to do its dirty work of denial and obstruction,” Whitehouse has said.
Besides having a different opinion on whether we’re in a “climate emergency” or not, what have these “climate deniers” actually done to receive such attention from the Senate?
“If it’s having to explain itself to legislative committees, or produce discovery about its activities in litigation, or even potentially in grand juries, then there’s a whole different complexion to our prospects going forward,” Whitehouse said in November in an interview with E&E News.
Whitehouse claims to have shared his concerns with Biden’s hand-picked “Climate Czar,” former senator and Secretary of State John Kerry. “I got good feedback,” Whitehouse reportedly said. “We’ll see once they actually get in and once they actually start governing.”
Biden has already made some key moves that have heartened his climate-alarmist supporters. His nomination of Kerry as his climate envoy and yesterday’s announcement of climate alarmist Gina McCarthy as national climate advisor have already earned cautious kudos from progressive elements of the Democrat Party.
Should Biden’s team be successful in wresting the presidency from Donald Trump, the only thing that will stand between climate sanity and the wishes of lawmakers such as Sheldon Whitehouse and AOC will be those two Georgia senate seats.
