Should Biden Declare a Climate Crisis National Emergency?

What's the story?

• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said President Joe Biden should consider declaring the climate-change crisis a national emergency, thereby giving the newly-minted president room to maneuver around GOP obstruction.  
• "Now, Trump used this emergency for a stupid wall, which wasn't an emergency," Schumer said.

"But if there ever was an emergency, climate is one. So I would suggest that they explore looking at climate as an emergency, which would give them more flexibility."

• In February 2019, Trump declared a national emergency to divert tens of billions of dollars from the defense budget to fund a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
• Schumer explained that an emergency order would allow Biden to "do many, many things under the emergency powers of the president that wouldn't have to go through" Congress.

• If Biden were to make such a declaration, it would almost certainly face court challenges, just like Trump’s wall funding order.

-Josh Herman