If President Trump wants to make the trains run on time again, he better not forget the batteries.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York is warning that Senate Democrats will not get on board with an infrastructure plan if it omits “policies and funding that help transition our country to a clean-energy economy and mitigate the risks the United States already faces from climate change,” including investments in battery storage and electric-grid reinforcement.
“No doubt, a single infrastructure bill alone will not solve our climate problem,” Schumer wrote in an op-ed published in the Washington Post in December. “But it is an important and necessary first step to include at least some, if not many, of these ideas. Without them, Trump should not count on Democratic support in the Senate.”
Democrats in 2017 unveiled a plan with similar demands. But now, Schumer insists Dems must “go further” by establishing permanent tax credits for clean-energy production and storage, electric vehicles, and energy-efficient homes. He also said that the government should invest in conservation, wildlife, and deferred maintenance on public lands to alleviate the influence of climate change, among other things.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., cosigned the threat on behalf of her chamber.
“When Democrats take the gavel, we will rebuild America with clean energy, smart technology and resilient infrastructure,” Pelosi said in a statement in December. “We will lead America into future frontiers with bold investments in advanced energy research and efficiency that create good-paying jobs.”
Trump has trumpeted infrastructure since the 2016 campaign, and last February the White House released a blueprint that would use $200 billion in federal funding to spur a minimum of $1.3 trillion in spending from state and local governments. But the plan didn’t make it out of the station.
And Democrats’ demands might ensure it never does.
Joseph Kane, a senior research analyst at the Brookings Institution, said adding climate change to an infrastructure measure would require a more “comprehensive” plan and that it will already be a challenge to address infrastructure alone.
“Adding another layer to it, around climate change,” he said, is commendable, but “doesn’t make the political map, let alone the financial map, any easier.”
Another question mark: how to pay for it. Schumer suggested the Democrats’ plan could be funded by “reversing the worst giveaways in the Trump tax bill” that was signed into law in 2017. Other potential options include a vehicle miles-traveled tax, which would require users to pay fees dependent on their mileage.
“Not to diminish the importance of climate, but there are a lot of salient issues and priorities that need to be hashed out,” Kane said. “I don’t think you can necessarily prioritize one over the other.”
“It’s going to be difficult with the political map to address all of this, particularly in the short term,” he added.
