| Updated: 11:28 p.m.
In a sweeping move to confront the global climate crisis head on, President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed executive orders aimed at establishing American leadership in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Central to this campaign is a moratorium on federal oil and gas leasing, pending a review of the program, that is sure to spark a backlash from the fossil fuel industry and energy-producing states like Utah.
“In my view, we’ve already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis. We can’t wait any longer,” Biden said at the White House. “We see it with our own eyes. We feel it. We know it in our bones. And it’s time to act.”