House Democratic leaders introduced sweeping climate legislation that would establish requirements for the power sector to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035, in line with President Biden’s aggressive goal.
The 2035 deadline represents a significant tightening of the requirements in legislation unveiled Tuesday by top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. A draft version of the bill, known as the CLEAN Future Act, released last year would have instead set a mandate for utilities to reach 100% clean power by 2050.
The updated bill would also make it tougher for natural gas-fired facilities to continue operating well into the future. The legislation only envisions a short-term role for natural gas plants to help reduce emissions under the clean electricity standard and would put a squeeze on gas after 2030.
House Democrats’ adoption of the 2035 target comes as utility industry leaders have warned such a deadline would be challenging.
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“The 2035 date would be an incredibly difficult situation to handle for most companies of the industry,” said Tom Kuhn, the president of the major utility trade group Edison Electric Institute, during a briefing to Wall Street last month.
Meeting that timeline could jeopardize power companies’ ability to keep the lights on and keep power prices affordable, Kuhn said.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, said the CLEAN Future Act represents the first introduction of a major climate bill in more than a decade.
“I really believe that the time for slow marginal change has long passed. If we don’t take meaningful nationwide action, our children will inherit an economy in a world beyond their capacity to repair,” Pallone told reporters during a briefing on the legislation.
The bill, which Pallone introduced alongside other top committee Democrats Rep. Paul Tonko of New York and Rep. Bobby Rush of Illinois, makes a number of other changes to match the ambition of Biden’s climate plans.
For example, the bill would set an interim target for the United States to cut its overall emissions in half by 2030, putting the country on a path to net-zero emissions by midcentury. The legislation also adopts Biden’s Justice40 initiative, directing 40% of the benefits of certain clean energy investments to go to poor and minority regions most at risk from pollution.
Tonko told reporters that the legislation is in line with the “aggressive, bold” climate plans the Biden administration has set out.
“What we put together is a plan here, certainly with the input of the new administration, that lays the groundwork for innovation,” Tonko said, adding that he anticipates more engagement with Biden’s climate team as committee Democrats seek to advance the bill.
Rush also noted that the committee will have an “open-door policy” with members of the industry to be able to offer input on the clean electricity standard and other aspects of the legislation.
The lawmakers said they intend to move the bill through the typical legislative process, with plans to hold hearings and markups in committee, though they acknowledged that pieces of the bill could end up moving as part of broader infrastructure or recovery legislation. Pallone said he expects all Democrats on the panel to back the bill, and he expressed optimism that the bill could garner Republican support.
It’s unlikely, however, that Republican lawmakers will sign on to a goal to eliminate carbon emissions from the power sector by 2035, a timeline they see as far too aggressive.
Rep. David McKinley, a West Virginia Republican and Energy and Commerce Committee member, called Pallone’s effort “simply partisan” during an event Tuesday morning hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center. McKinley, along with Oregon Democratic Rep. Kurt Schrader, has crafted a separate clean electricity standard bill that would target 80% emissions reductions by 2050, regulations that would kick in after a 10-year funding blitz for clean energy research and development.
Some industry groups also appeared skeptical of House Democrats’ approach.
“As lawmakers move forward, we urge them to focus their efforts on developing market-based mechanisms for reducing carbon emissions that are durable and can garner bipartisan support,” said Marty Durbin, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s senior vice president of policy. The Chamber recently lent support for carbon pricing in a shift of its climate policy stance.
Pallone, however, told reporters that a carbon pricing scheme has already been attempted unsuccessfully in Congress, and he noted that there are concerns that carbon pricing approaches that allow companies to “pay to pollute” jeopardize the poor and minority populations whose health suffers most from pollution.
“The votes are just not there for a price on carbon,” he said.
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In addition to the changes to match Biden’s plans, the bill also includes new sections to support the build-out of electric transmission to help integrate more renewable energy, to increase electric vehicle charging infrastructure investments in poor regions, to address plastics pollution and minerals recycling, and to help fossil fuel workers who lose their jobs during a transition to cleaner energy.
Several smaller sections included in the draft bill last year were dropped from the final package because they were passed as part of the year-end spending bill. That includes support for carbon capture and storage technologies and programs to boost energy efficiency, according to a committee fact sheet.
