Biden promises to ‘save the planet from the climate crisis’

President Biden spoke in stark terms about global warming during the State of the Union address on Thursday evening, abandoning the more sterile term “climate change” and instead referring twice to the “climate crisis.”

“I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis,” Biden said to applause as he concluded his speech to a joint session of Congress.

Without mentioning his name, Biden sought to contrast his record on climate change with that of former President Donald J. Trump, the expected Republican presidential nominee, who ridiculed climate science, unraveled policies that would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions and the unhindered development of fossil fuels.

“We are also making history by confronting the climate crisis, not by denying it,” Biden told Trump in a speech.

The president reiterated a familiar theme: that tackling climate change will deliver economic benefits and job gains.

He boasted that the Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats pushed through Congress in 2022 without Republican votes, had invested at least $370 billion in wind, solar and other renewable energy and created “tens of thousands of clean energy jobs.” He said his climate policies had attracted $650 billion in private sector investment in clean energy and advanced manufacturing.

The president’s only new proposal was related to his American Climate Corps, a national service program that trains 20,000 young adults for careers in clean energy and conservation. Mr. Biden said he wanted to triple the size of that program over the next decade.

The president underscored his goal of cutting the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, calling it “the most important climate action ever in the history of the world.”

It remains unclear whether his policies will achieve that goal.

Republicans immediately attacked Mr. Biden’s climate comments. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, accused the president of proposing a “radical rush-to-green” policy.

Mr. Trump blasted Mr. Biden over his energy policies, saying in a news release that “consumers are just not interested” in electric vehicles and claiming that new Biden administration rules aimed at making dishwashers more energy efficient would leave Americans with dirty dishes leave behind.

Collin Rees of Oil Change International, which wants to put an end to new fossil fuel projects, said Mr Biden’s comments on climate change “could have been missed in an instant.” He said the president had focused too much on clean energy and not enough on ending the use of oil, gas and coal.

But Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, the president of NextGen America, which targets voters under 35, said Biden “made it clear in his speech that he is listening to America’s youth and that he is willing to work with us on the issues that matter most to us.” She said activists were determined to “hold the Biden administration to their promises made tonight, and to push for more.”