The Earth Day message delivered to President Joe Biden outside the White House on Saturday was clear: do everything in your power to bring the age of fossil fuels to an end while rapidly escalating the renewable energy transition that holds the key to a more sustainable future.
It was delivered by hundreds who turned out to march in downtown Washington, D.C. and rallied outside the president's official residence despite rain and cold weather in the nation's capitol.
"Humanity is at a crossroads," organizers said ahead of the day's event. "Now is when we decide how we want to go on as a civilization. Will we create a livable, just, equitable future for everyone? Or will we let present and future generations live with chaos and destruction? The planet's life supporting systems are disintegrating, and our environment needs to be restored."
During a rally in Freedom Plaza ahead of the march to the White House, Jean Su, the energy justice director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said, "We're in trouble everyone, we're in big trouble. But here's the good news: President Biden has all the tools right now to actually turn this ship around."
Biden, Su continued, "can declare a climate emergency and stop all new fossil fuel approvals," and revoke recent approvals of dirty drilling operations like the Willow Project in Alaska, new offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico, and LNG export terminals in Texas that critics have said are a direct contradiction of the president's stated climate goals.
Instead of continuing on the path of fossil fuels, Su said Biden should "start a new, just energy transition" immediately. "We don't want the same utilities. We want community energy and storage and affordable, resilient rooftop solar. That's a beautiful, beautiful future, and President Biden actually has the powers to do that."
