WASHINGTON — There is no denying we're seeing heat waves happening earlier in the year, lasting longer and reaching higher temperatures than ever before. With science in mind, President Joe Biden stopped by D.C.'s new Emergency Operations Center to outline his administration's plan to fight climate change.
President Biden was joined at the Emergency Operations Center on Tuesday with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Acting Director of D.C.'s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency Clint Osborn, leaders from FEMA, the National Weather Service and the Department of Labor.
"The impacts we're seeing are only going to get worse, more frequent, more ferocious and hitting our most vulnerable people in the hardest-hit communities in the world. Look, we can change all that. It's within our power," Biden said.
Twenty-eight individual billion-dollar extreme weather events caused more than $90 billion in damage in 2023, according to the White House. Climate change, they say, is fueling more frequent and more severe weather events.
Biden announced five initiatives:
- New federal safety standards for excessive heat in the workplace.
- A FEMA plan to improve flood resistant infrastructure
- $1 billion in grants from FEMA to help protect communities against natural disasters
- Examine a new EPA report on climate change to better prepare for the future
- Later this summer, the president will convene a White House summit on extreme heat.
Biden called out former president Donald Trump and congressional Republicans for denying climate change.
"It's not only outrageous, it's really stupid," he said. "Everyone who willfully denies the impact of climate change is condemning the American people to a dangerous future, and is either really, really dumb or has some other motive. How can you deny there's climate change for God's sake?"
The president spent about 90 minutes at the EOC, which opened its doors last year. He greeted employees afterward.
He also announced the creation of a new website called heat.gov, which includes interactive tools to examine the risks off extreme weather in our own areas.
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