Biden points to West’s fires in push for budget to combat climate change
BOISE, Idaho — President Joe Biden on Monday pointed to wildfires burning through the West to argue for his $3.5 trillion spending plan, calling year-round fires and other extreme weather a climate change reality the nation can no longer ignore.
Biden spoke during a briefing in Boise, Idaho, while visiting the National Interagency Fire Center, which coordinates the government’s response to wildfires.
Millions of acres of land in several Western states have burned already this year, he noted.
“The reality is we have a global warming problem, a serious global warming problem, and it’s consequential and what’s going to happen is, things are not going to go back,” Biden said.
In his two-day trip, which includes a stop in Colorado on Tuesday, Biden is looking to connect the dots for Americans between the increasing frequency of wildfires in the West — and other extreme weather events around the country — and a need to invest billions in combating climate change as well as in a vast expansion of the social safety net.
The president argued for spending today to lessen the future
effects of climate change, as he did during recent stops in Louisiana, New York and New Jersey — all states that suffered millions of dollars in flood damage and scores of deaths following Hurricane Ida.
In Idaho, Biden said that every dollar invested in “resilience” will save $6 down the road.
He discussed the administration’s use in early August of a wartime law to boost supplies of fire hoses from the U.S. Forest Service’s primary supplier.
“My message to you is, when we build back, we have to build back better,” Biden said. “It’s not a Democrat thing. It’s not a Republican
thing. It’s a weather thing. It’s a reality. It’s serious and we can do this.”
In deep-red Idaho, several opposing groups were leveraging Biden’s trip as a way to show resistance to his administration. GOP gubernatorial candidates, an antivaccine organization and a farright group were among those urging people to turn out against the president.
More than 1,000 protesters gathered in Boise on Monday before Biden’s arrival to express displeasure with his coronavirus plan, the election and other issues.