On Thursday's The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, fill-in host Ayman Mohyeldin devoted a segment to pushing for President Joe Biden to target the fossil fuel industry without the approval of Congress. Setting up a segment with environmental alarmist Bill McKibben, Mohyeldin blamed recent examples of extreme weather on "climate change" and lamented that Democrats have failed to pass regulations to allegedly address the issue:
And when you take a step back and take all of these as a whole, we know that it is because of climate change. So what are we going to do about it? How do we slow climate change while we still can? We got closer than ever -- than ever -- this year to Democrats passing real substantial climate change with President Biden's Build Back Better. But Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Simena -- along with the filibuster -- have essentially put that legislation on life support.
He then talked up the possibility of President Biden taking more action against business without congressional approval:
With that up in the air, one of America's most influential climate experts and activists, Bill McKibben, is proposing an alternative path and important path. He's proposing that President Biden use the executive authority that he has as President to jump start climate policy. And that idea is not so crazy. While Congress has been tied up, President Biden's Interior Department announced plans to make almost all federally controlled coastline available to be leased for offshore wind farms like this one.
After McKibben was brought aboard as a guest, he took a jab at moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin for receiving funding from the fossil fuel industry, and then listed actions President Biden could take the hinder the use of fossil fuels:
He can start shutting down pipelines like Line 3 -- he can stop the leasing of new gas and oil on public lands. He can move -- he should move in any -- in any event to do things like make Treasury and the SEC and the Fed crack down on the banks that are going after -- that are funding the fossil fuel industry.
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Transcript follows:
MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show
December 30, 2021
9:49 p.m. Eastern
AYMAN MOHYELDIN: It is impossible -- impossible -- to tie any one of these extreme weather events directly to climate change, but we have had an absolutely overwhelmingly -- overwhelming amount of weather disasters this year. And when you take a step back and take all of these as a whole, we know that it is because of climate change. So what are we going to do about it? How do we slow climate change while we still can? We got closer than ever -- than ever -- this year to Democrats passing real substantial climate change with President Biden's Build Back Better.
But Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Simena -- along with the filibuster -- have essentially put that legislation on life support. With that up in the air, one of America's most influential climate experts and activists, Bill McKibben, is proposing an alternative path and important path. He's proposing that President Biden use the executive authority that he has as President to jump start climate policy.
And that idea is not so crazy. While Congress has been tied up, President Biden's Interior Department announced plans to make almost all federally controlled coastline available to be leased for offshore wind farms like this one. So what else could Biden do? Joining us now is Bill McKibben. He is a climate expert and one of the founders of the grassroots environmental group 350.org. ... So with the need to keep Joe Manchin happy potentially out of the window now, the shackles could come off, so to speak, in the fight against climate change. What kind of things could the White House -- could President Biden do by using his executive powers on climate change?
BILL MCKIBBEN, 350.ORG: Well, let's make three points. One, the best scenario still is that somehow we get Joe Manchin on board and pass the Build Back Better legislation. Look, in the 30 years of the climate crisis, Congress has never passed climate legislation. We've got to finally do something. If Joe Manchin -- who has taken more money from the fossil fuel industry than anybody else -- refuses to budge, then the President has some things he can still do.
He can start shutting down pipelines like Line 3 -- he can stop the leasing of new gas and oil on public lands. He can move -- he should move in any -- in any event to do things like make Treasury and the SEC and the Fed crack down on the banks that are going after -- that are funding the fossil fuel industry.
(...)
