Before Biden leaves office, here's what he can do for the environment

Now in its final months, the Biden administration has a chance to cement its powerful legacy on the environment. Congress returns for its so-called lame duck session on Nov. 12. The administration should pull out all the stops to work with Congress and use the powers of the presidency to get some more big things done.

First, the administration must continue its historic work to address the climate crisis and further push the United States economy away from the burning of fossil fuels. The Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the other major policy initiatives championed by this administration are some of the most effective tools we have ever had to combat climate change, create good American jobs, and ensure the U.S. leads in the next economy. The investments in clean energy and manufacturing must continue.

But while that happens, we also need to stop bad policies that threaten reckless fossil fuel expansion, the opposite of the direction in which we need to move.

There are two critical actions the federal government can take right now to combat fossil fuel-driven climate change. One is stopping the build-out of massive liquefied natural gas export terminals like the proposed CP2 facility in Louisiana. Approving more fracked gas infrastructure will only lock us into a fossil fuel future neither country or the world can afford. Increasing fracked gas extraction and processing for export is a bad choice all around.

We do not need to burn more fossil fuels for energy. Virtually every step of the cycle from extraction to export is fraught with risks to public health. From fracking and the pipelines used to transport the gas, to the liquefaction process and the harm to ecosystems from the new terminals and tanker traffic, it all creates dangerous pollution. And it is a raw deal for American consumers as well. According to an analysis by Public Citizen, domestic consumers could face $14.3 billion in higher annual energy costs due to liquefied natural gas exports. The Biden administration should reject its expansion and stop the CP2 project.

The other lame duck session action the administration should take against fossil fuel expansion is working to defeat the bad permitting bill by Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. The Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 would gut bedrock environmental laws, endanger public health, open up federal lands and waters to further oil and gas leasing, and fast-track the review of proposed liquefied natural gas export projects. It would be another big step in the wrong direction.

Public lands, old-growth forests

The second area in which the Biden administration needs to continue its historic leadership is in the protection of public lands. The administration’s America the Beautiful initiative aims to protect and preserve at least 30% of our lands and waters by 2030. Biden can go out with a bang by using the Antiquities Act to create several more national monuments.

The administration protected over 12.5 million acres of public lands just in 2023 alone. Now Biden has a chance to create a national monument at Sáttítla, or Medicine Lake Highlands, in Northern California. The monument would protect over 206,000 acres of land that hosts unique ecosystems and has deep cultural importance to Indigenous tribes in the area. He should also create the Chuckwalla National Monument, to protect roughly 660,000 acres of the California desert south of Joshua Tree National Park. And, at long last, the president should designate the site of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma as a national monument to recognize the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of our country’s most horrific and largest incidents of racial violence.

The other action the administration should take to protect lands is to finalize protections, under the U.S. Forest Service, for America’s remaining mature and old growth forests. Mature trees are especially effective at removing carbon from the air and are one of Earth’s most important natural defenses against the climate crisis.

Lastly, the Biden administration should work with Congress to expand access to the outdoors for all Americans, by doing what it takes to pass the EXPLORE Act and sign it into law. The bipartisan bill is a wide-ranging package of policies including the Outdoors for All Act and expansion of the Every Kid Outdoors program to make national parks and public lands accessible to more of America’s youth. The EXPLORE Act would help close the nature equity gap and help kids, families, veterans, and millions of others enjoy the gifts of nature.

This president deserves our gratitude for how he has prioritized the climate, fighting pollution, and land conservation. Biden now has a little under three months to keep doing big things.

Ben Jealous is executive director of the Sierra Club and a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

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