In cases of emergency

February 17th is Presidents Day in the United States. The holiday celebrates a job that is famously difficult, deserving of ongoing recognition - and extremely powerful, deserving of ongoing scrutiny.

Lately I have been scrutinizing the Declaration of Emergencies, something presidents use to grant themselves temporary access to 150 or so policy power-ups. During his first week in office, the new President signed off on three new ones, including #14156, titled "Declaring a National Energy Emergency."

So... are we in an energy emergency? What are these declarations all about? I decided to do a little digging. Here's what I learned.

What are National Emergencies?

While the U.S. government was designed to have strong checks and balances, it also means the political process takes time. Sometimes the standard process may not move fast enough to address emergent matters needing immediate attention. The National Emergencies Act of 1979 provided a mechanism to afford the President additional powers on a temporary basis, while also attempting to safeguard against its overuse.

Once a President has emergency powers, what's to stop them from keeping them?

The Act is supposed to prevent that, by making them sunset automatically after 12 months unless they were renewed. But has it worked?

I'll let history speak for itself. I created the graph below by calculating the number of active national emergencies (i.e. opened but not yet closed) each year. The graph starts in 1979, which is the year of the oldest declaration that remains active in 2025:

Regardless of which political party has been in power, this "declaration inflation" growth curve has continued to march on.

President aside, is there a 'national energy emergency' in the U.S.?

It depends on how you define emergency. If you define it based on availability, then the answer may be "no" - at least not in any ongoing way. But if you define it based on affordability, the answer may be "yes." A recent CNET survey found that 78%?of US adults were concerned about rising home energy costs, and 24% were cutting back on essential purchases to fit energy bills into their budgets.

But what about the 'climate emergency'? Hasn't that also been declared a national emergency?

Although some 2,364 jurisdictions across 40 countries have declared a climate emergency, so far the U.S. is not one of them. The closest we've come is in 2023, when the former President said he had 'practically' done that - without formally doing it.

Within the U.S., there have been at least 206 local / regional declarations, and at the individual level, more than 75% of surveyed adults in the U.S. believe global warming will be a somewhat or very serious problem in the U.S.

Where does this all leave us?

As noted above, a sizable majority in the U.S. are concerned about both energy affordability and the threats posed by global warming. We won't get very far trying to solve one without the other. With renewables now less expensive than fossil fuels, it is feasible to make progress on both fronts simultaneously.

Recent items of interest

• [video] - By the time. Produced by Science Moms and shown during this year's Superbowl, this short and incredibly powerful video brings sustainability work to a new emotional level. (Definitely deserves at least as many views as the Muppets/Booking.com commercial.) Watch and share here.
• [resource] - Finding data. If you have been trying to access federal data that are no longer where you expect them to be, Syracuse University Libraries may be able to help. Check out their Preserving Government Data page here.

Upcoming events/deadlines

• [call for abstracts] - World Hospital Congress. (Accepted until Feb 28, 2025). The World Hospital Congress 2025 will take place Nov. 10-12 at the International Conference Centre in Geneva, Switzerland. The Congress brings together forward-thinking healthcare executives from across the world, and features an entire track on Environmentally sustainable, resilient, and low-carbon healthcare - among the many other urgent challenges we all share in common. Abstracts can be submitted here.
• [convention - clinicians] - Our Planet, Our Health: 2025 Climate Action Convention (March 1-4, Washington DC + Online. CME eligible. Modest registration fee required.). One of the largest events ever focused on planetary health and climate action, with sessions being held at the National Academy of Sciences and the Hopkins Bloomberg Center. Attendees will gain insights into cutting-edge research on the links between ecological drivers and health outcomes, explore strategies for building resilience and equity in the face of climate challenges, and learn how to build capacity for science-informed policymaking. More information and registration available here.
• [call for research] - Seeking submissions on Planetary Health Leadership. (Accepted through March 30, 2025). BMJ Leader issued this call to begin building an evidence base for what it really means to lead with people and planet in mind. More information is available here; you can also read the editorial Rammina Yassaie and I wrote for context here.
• [workshop - healthcare leaders] - Unlocking Leadership Skills for Resilient and Lower-Carbon Healthcare (March 23, Houston, TX, ACHE Congress). Successful sustainability programs can yield numerous dividends - including financial savings, talent attraction and enhanced employee engagement, as well as supporting health equity goals. To learn more, join us for this full-day program which I am co-facilitating with Kara Hammond Brooks from the American Hospital Association. The workshop will also include sessions with Dr. Jonathan Perlin and Kevin Zacharyasz, M.En. from The Joint Commission and Carrie Owen Plietz from Kaiser Permanente. More information and registration are available here.

As always, I welcome your comments - and corrections. Thank you for reading, and your help healing our future.

Andy Garman