January 16, 2025
3 minutes read
‘Powerful forces’ threaten climate action, Biden warns
In his farewell address, President Biden warned that powerful “oligarchy” could undo four years of progress on climate policy.
U.S. President Joe Biden gives a farewell speech in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday.
Mandel Ngan – Swimming Pool/Getty Images
Climate Wire | President Joe Biden used the first half of his 17-minute farewell address Wednesday night to tout his accomplishments over the past four years and highlight infrastructure and climate legislation that has created new jobs across the country.
Then it got dark.
Biden warned from the Oval Office that powerful “oligarchy” were threatening American democracy and were seeking to scale back and destroy his climate policies. He said climate change was one of the most serious threats facing the country and that he was concerned about the fate of his landmark climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. The law includes nearly $400 billion in clean energy spending, which President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to claw back.
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“We’ve proven that you don’t have to choose between protecting the environment and growing the economy,” Biden said. “We’re doing both.” “Powerful forces want to use their unbridled influence to eliminate the steps we have taken to address the climate crisis for their own benefit.”
Biden has never nominated Trump directly. But he blamed a fog of misinformation for misleading the American people. He said the free press was “crumbling.” He said social media fact checkers have been removed. He mentioned big tech companies. Mehta’s latest announcement I will no longer be using fact-checking tools.
“I am equally concerned about the potential rise of the tech industrial complex, which poses real risks to our country,” Biden said. “Americans are buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation that enables abuses of power.”
Biden’s speech made clear that he was concerned that his climate legacy was under threat. He has overseen the most aggressive climate plan in U.S. history, and some of its impacts, such as promoting clean energy manufacturing and electric vehicles, will survive a Trump administration.
But Biden’s climate change efforts will now face four years of frontal assault. Trump wants to repeal or weaken inflation reduction laws as much as possible, and plans to target fossil fuel regulation with a flurry of executive orders as soon as he takes office.
The president who frequently called climate change an “existential threat” will be gone. At the resolute desk will sit a president who promises to “drill, baby, drill.”
Trump promised that government support for electric vehicles is now over. He would transform a White House currently focused on ensuring that all federal agencies consider climate change into a White House determined to increase fossil fuel production as quickly as possible.
And while Biden is increasing the number of federal employees focused on climate change, reducing carbon emissions and environmental justice, Trump’s new cabinet officials have promised to eliminate them.
Biden ended with a small word of hope in the final moments of his Oval Office speech, days before he wraps up nearly half a century in the office.
“After 50 years of public service, I still believe in the ideals this country stands for – the idea that the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure,” he said. “Now it’s your turn to stand guard.”
Reprinted from E&E News With permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides essential news to energy and environmental professionals.
