Greg Casar’s Thirst Strike Got Biden’s Attention. Will It Bring About a Climate Emergency?

“The climate crisis is no longer a theoretical discussion,” Congressman Greg Casar told Vanity Fair. The 34-year-old freshman lawmaker representing Austin, Texas, was fresh off a “thirst strike” on the steps of the Capitol building. For roughly nine hours last Tuesday, Casar abstained from drinking water—the same day DC Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a heat advisory—to protest a recent change in Texas law to ban mandated water breaks for workers in cities and local municipalities. The goal of the thirst strike was twofold: to draw attention to the controversial legislation signed into law by Texas’s Republican governor Greg Abbott and to ramp up public pressure on Joe Biden and Congress to take drastic measures to address the climate crisis.

After a spring defined by a wave of unprecedented wildfires and floods, Casar insists activists like himself, “no longer need to talk about this in academic terms.” He is among a growing chorus of progressives calling on Biden to use every tool at the administration’s disposal to fight the escalating climate crisis. Earlier this week, Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Edward Markey, and Jeff Merkley sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Justice Department to bring lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry for “its longstanding and carefully coordinated campaign to mislead consumers and discredit climate science.” Progressives have also been attempting to pressure Biden to declare a Climate Emergency, which would unlock a series of authorities such as the Defense Production Act that could be used to boost the production of Clean Energy technology.

The strike worked—to some degree. It got the attention of the Biden administration. According to Casar, Labor Secretary Julie Su called the congressman during the protest and expressed a commitment to getting heat protections for workers “across the finish line.” Two days later, Biden announced steps his administration will take to address working conditions in extreme heat—including, potentially, federal water break mandates.

“Even those who deny that we’re in the midst of a climate crisis, can’t deny the impact that extreme heat is having on Americans… the construction workers who literally risk their lives working all day in blazing heat, and in some places don’t even have the right to take a water break. That’s outrageous. That is outrageous,” the president said. “The idea that you can’t have mandatory water breaks when you’re working on a construction? Hell, when I played football, if you — if you had a coach who, during the spring — during summer practice, didn’t provide water, you know, on a regular basis, he got in trouble, got fired. I mean, what are we doing here? What’s going on with some of this stuff?”

Still, the Biden administration hasn’t committed to declaring a national emergency. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters she didn’t “have anything new to share” on the matter last week. When pressed further, she reiterated. “I just don’t have any additional actions to preview at this time.” Contacted by VF to comment on the possibility of the president declaring a Climate Emergency, a White House official provided a similar response and added, “President Biden has done more than any prior president to address the climate crisis.” According to a recent report from The Washington Post, the move is still under consideration in the administration.

Casar was encouraged by Biden’s comments, but said it was just the first step. “As politicians, we’re famously always a couple of steps behind the people, and I think, as elected officials, we’re starting to finally catch up to where people are,” he said.

“I do think the politics have changed a bit since the movement originally started pushing for a Climate Emergency declaration,” a senior advisor to the Congressional Progressive Caucus told VF. “I think people see this extreme weather on a regular basis and it doesn’t seem like an outlandish thing.” The congressional aide said declaring a Climate Emergency would go a long way “to show that the administration is really taking the climate crisis seriously” and build Biden’s credibility with the left. Notably, Congressman Earl Blumenauer reintroduced a resolution in mid-July, with the backing of 60 of his House colleagues, once again calling on President Biden to declare a Climate Emergency, as temperatures spiked across the country.

In Texas, Abbott and his allies have argued that the water break measure, which is part of a larger package of measures known as the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, merely seeks to standardize business regulations across the state. Per the text of the legislation, “local regulations have led to a patchwork of regulations that apply inconsistently across this state”—(read: like the water break mandates in Austin and Dallas)—so now, “The governing body of a municipality may adopt, enforce, or maintain an ordinance or rule only if the ordinance or rule is consistent with the laws of this state.”

Casar called that argument “clear BS” adding that “if those big business groups were proposing a statewide water break standard that protected workers, then I’d be all for it. They’re asking for a statewide standard where there are no water break protections for anyone in Texas.” Those in the business community and on the Right mocked Casar for his strike. “Democrat Greg Casar went 8 hours without eating or drinking something. To normal Americans, that’s just skipping breakfast or lunch at work,” Dan Eberhart, the CEO of drilling services company Canary, tweeted. “To him, it’s a hunger strike that he set up media cameras for once it was over. What a pathetic stunt.” Similarly, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales wrote on Twitter, “I go on a thirst strike literally every night at bedtime. Please clap.”