Declaring a presidential emergency on the climate is a dangerous idea

Even in his proposal’s vagueness, declaring such an emergency would be a bold act ― one that climate, legal and political experts say could open dangerous doors and ultimately hinder long-term action to combat climate change.

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“Simply put, too much executive power + too much polarization = schizophrenic policies,” Daniel Drezner, a professor of international politics at Tufts University, told HuffPost via email. “You need Congressional buy-in for any policy to endure, and almost by definition climate change policies require sustainability.”…

Richard Pierce, a law professor at George Washington University, expects there are few experts on presidential emergency powers who aren’t troubled by the precedent set by Trump and Steyer’s comment at the debate.

“Scholars all over the country are scrambling to find some way of limiting the scope of those powers now that everybody realizes that they can be used to potentially do any damn thing the president wants,” he told HuffPost in an interview.

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