Climate Power Statement on President Biden’s Extreme Heat Announcements

Washington, D.C. – In response to President Biden’s announcement of new steps to protect communities and workers from the impacts of climate-fueled extreme heat, Climate Power Executive Director Lori Lodes issued the following statement:

“President Biden understands that climate-fueled extreme weather events are impacting the daily lives of people in every corner of America. Today’s announcements will be welcome news to the large majority of voters, including a majority of Republicans, who say that extreme weather is now a kitchen table issue in their households because of the dire impacts they are experiencing. The only way to avoid even more catastrophic warming is to speed up the clean energy transition, and that is exactly what is happening across the country thanks to President Biden’s clean energy plan.”

Yesterday, Climate Power and Data for Progress released a new survey that found two-thirds of voters (67%) say that “the impacts of climate change and extreme weather are kitchen table issues in my household” that they either sometimes or often think and talk about. 

• 1-in-4 voters say they “often” think and talk about climate change and extreme weather events in their households.

• 81% of Democrats, 62% of Independents and 51% of Republicans say that the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events are kitchen table issues in their households.

You can read a full memo on the poll here.

As extreme weather bakes the country, President Biden’s clean energy plan is moving the U.S. away from our costly and dangerous dependence on fossil fuels. According to a new report released yesterday, in the year since the clean energy plan became law, businesses have announced 170,600 new clean energy jobs in 44 states across the country totaling $278 billion in new investments for local economies, with more announced every day.