Rep. Earl Blumenauer Proposes His Own “National Emergency”: Climate Change

As President Trump seeks to expand executive power, Oregon’s Blumenauer fights back with a national emergency of his own.

Fall foliage on Steens Mountain, Oregon. (Bureau of Land Management)

Shortly after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency along the southern border this morning to obtain funding for a wall, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) announced his plans to propose a national emergency over climate change to Congress.

In a letter to colleagues, Blumenauer said Congress should be "focusing efforts on addressing a real national emergency and one of the most pressing issues of our time: climate change."

He scorned Trump for his "manufactured 'crisis' on the border" and "circumventing Congress and the Constitution."

"If Donald Trump wants to start declaring national emergencies for fake crises," Blumenauer writes, "Congress should start to address the real ones, starting with climate change."

In recent weeks, pundits have observed that Trump's efforts to expand executive powers could backfire on Republicans, should Democrats retake the White House in 2020. Several observers have noted that the same powers that Trump is using to erect a border wall could be used to restrict carbon emissions.

Blumenauer's proposal comes just one week after Democratic members of Congress introduced a resolution called the "Green New Deal," that proposed a plan to switch the economy to carbon-free energy within 10 years.

In the letter he penned to fellow Congress members, Blumenauer warned of the gravity of climate change, saying that "Every day, our temperatures are rising and our sea levels are following suit, threatening more intense storms and natural disasters. Saving the planet is our most pressing issue that must be addressed with urgent action."

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