Climate activists hoping the president would declare a state of emergency over climate change will have to wait.

Even as President Biden acknowledged that about 100 million Americans are under a heat warning and that about 90 communities set records for high temperatures this year, he held back on the emergency declaration.

“As president, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces a clear and present danger,” Biden said in Somerset. “And that’s what climate change is about. It is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger.”

Biden was in Bristol County, at the former Brayton Point coal-fired power plant Wednesday. The plant’s redevelopment into a subsea cable manufacturer and electric converter station is what brought him, and some activists say it represents a step forward.

“Massachusetts has been at the forefront of the transformation of our energy sector, and we welcome the Federal partnership to ensure clean wind energy has a landing place in Massachusetts,” Deb Markowitz, The Nature Conservancy’s Massachusetts state director, told the Herald.

Others say it’s not enough.

“Extinction Rebellion Boston demands that Biden immediately declare a National Climate Emergency to ensure a rapid transition to renewable sources of energy,” that group said in a release.

Biden said his plan to tackle climate change’s clear and present danger will go forward with or without congress.

“I said last week, I’ll say it again loud and clear, as president I will use my executive power to combat the crisis in the absence of congressional action. In the coming days my administration will announce the executive actions we have developed to combat this emergency. We need to act,” he said.

Biden did not take questions from the press after his speech, which lasted about 20 minutes. His entourage arrived in well over a dozen armored SUVs, and his staff had the press waiting in hundreds of running cars for about half an hour.

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