Senate Democrats unveiled plans Monday to pass legislation, without Republican votes, to put the United States on track to meet President Joe Biden’s goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.
“By finally tackling climate change, we can spare our country and our planet the most devastating effects of global warming,” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a letter to Senate Democrats announcing the fiscal year 2022 budget agreement that includes the plans.
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The climate measures are part of the Democratic $3.5 trillion budget blueprint, which is not legislation but would unlock a process, called budget reconciliation, that would allow Democrats to pass bills with a simple majority in the Senate. Republicans cannot filibuster the reconciliation legislation.
The centerpiece component of the climate part of the plan calls for the Senate Energy Committee to create a “clean electricity payment” program that would essentially pay utilities to generate a growing percentage of power from carbon-free sources. It would require the electric utility sector as a whole to generate 80% of its power from clean energy sources by 2030. That would keep pace with Biden’s goal, submitted as part of the Paris Climate Agreement, to cut U.S. emissions across the economy by 50% by the end of the decade.
Party leaders included other climate policies as part of the agreement that they are counting on to meet Biden’s goals, including clean energy tax credits and funding to create a Civilian Climate Corps, modeled off a New Deal-era program, to put people to work weatherizing homes, restoring coastlines, managing forests, and other climate-related projects.
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Other measures would provide consumers rebates for electrifying homes, electrify the federal vehicle fleet, and impose fees on carbon-intensive products imported from abroad.
