The House passed a $1.5 trillion “green” infrastructure package on a partisan basis Wednesday by a 233-188 vote, as Democrats signaled their commitment to combating climate change through multiple avenues, a key issue for their voting base.
House Democrats’ bill, the Moving Forward Act, includes a significant focus on climate change, including massive investments in electric cars, zero-emissions buses, and electricity grid modernization to support more renewable energy. The legislation would also extend tax credits for wind, solar, and carbon capture technologies and create incentives for energy storage, among other clean energy tax provisions.
“This is a transformational bill that will rebuild our country and economy for the 21st Century, and if the Senate wants to move our nation forward, it would pass this bill immediately,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
The inclusion of the clean energy provisions followed pressure on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from rank-and-file Democrats to include aid to the renewable energy sector in coronavirus relief efforts. The renewable energy industry has lost nearly 100,000 jobs since the pandemic began.
Democrats quickly moved the infrastructure bill before the July 4 holiday just a day after a special climate change committee created by Pelosi released a sweeping plan committing the United States to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the economy by 2050.
Republican lawmakers opposed the bill, saying they were shut out of its development and saying they considered it outside the bounds of traditional infrastructure investments and akin to the liberal Green New Deal.
Senate Republicans said they won’t bring the bill to a vote, and the White House has threatened to veto it.
“So, naturally, this nonsense is not going anywhere in the Senate. It will just join the list of absurd House proposals that were only drawn up to show fealty to the radical Left,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said from the Senate floor on Wednesday.
