Senate Democrats released a report Tuesday that intended to show the party’s commitment to act quickly on legislation to combat climate change if it takes full control of executive and legislative power in 2021 with Joe Biden as president.
“When Democrats retake the majority in the Senate, we will be unified to move swiftly on legislation to tackle the climate crisis,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in a call with reporters. “It will be a top priority if I become majority leader.”
The report from the Senate’s special climate change committee is similar in broad strokes to a plan released by House Democrats and to the agenda proposed by Biden, which call for phasing out fossil fuels from the electricity sector through mandates and increasing federal spending on renewable technologies.
All of the plans frame combating climate change as an opportunity, coming out of the coronavirus pandemic, to create millions of jobs — a counter to Republicans and oil and gas industry critics who say fossil fuels keep energy costs low.
[Read more: Roadblock to Biden climate plans: Centrist Democrats]
“The coronavirus only further exposed the importance of trusting science and confronting the climate crisis with the urgency it requires,” Schumer said. “Now, we have the opportunity to build more and better jobs for the American people.”
The Senate report calls for increasing federal spending on climate to at least 2% of gross domestic product (roughly $430 billion) annually in order for the United States to help the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050. It seeks to ensure that at least 40% of the benefits from these investments help communities of color and disadvantaged communities, a response to calls for serving “environmental justice,” a movement that has become louder during recent months of police protests.
It is less prescriptive than the House report or Biden’s plan.
Biden has pledged to pass a clean electricity standard, or mandate, for eliminating carbon emissions from power plants by 2035.
A clean electricity standard requires utilities to use increasing amounts of power from zero-carbon sources, including wind and solar but also nuclear, hydropower, and biomass. House Democrats have also endorsed a clean electricity mandate to eliminate emissions from the power sector by 2040, a slightly longer timeline.
Senate Democrats position a clean electricity standard as one option to decarbonize the power sector, along with a carbon price, in order to “maintain flexibility,” said Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, the chairman of the climate committee.
“They are not the same, but they rhyme,” Schatz said of the various Democratic plans.
The committee does not set a target date to reach zero-carbon electricity, and it does not contain restrictions on fossil fuel production, such as a fracking ban on natural gas, as some liberal environmental groups have demanded. Biden and Democrats in Congress want to avoid alienating fossil fuel workers in key swing states like Pennsylvania.
“It is not our desire to be using fossil fuel indefinitely,” Schatz said, adding Senate Democrats seek to get off oil and gas “as fast as we can” in an “economically efficient” manner.
Democrats are eager to show unity on climate after a convention in which Biden listed the issue as one of “four historic crises” demanding immediate attention, along with the pandemic, the economy, and racial justice.
Schumer reiterated that Democrats are “not taking anything off the table” to help overcome Republican opposition to passing major climate legislation, including ending the filibuster in order to enable a majority vote.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island also mentioned passing elements of the agenda through budget reconciliation, a procedural tool that allows for the passing of fiscal measures with a simple majority.
