Democrats got over a big hump yesterday with the Senate’s passage of their climate bill, a generational investment in clean energy that could supercharge efforts to combat climate change in the U.S. over the next decade.
It capped months of negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) that resulted in a $379 billion package of clean energy investments, the biggest climate bill to ever pass Congress.
“It’s not the end of the road. In fact, it’s the start of what we need to do on climate action,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said in an interview. “But it is by far the most significant climate action that any government has ever taken.”
But the “Inflation Reduction Act” still has a few steps to go before it’s law.
Following Senate bill passage along party lines and a tiebreaking vote in the Senate by Vice President Kamala Harris, attention now turns to the House, which will reconvene to consider the bill Friday.
Democrats hold the House’s majority by a margin of 220 to 210. But it’s not yet clear if every member of the caucus will vote for the bill. In particular, Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar, a conservative Democrat who supports fossil fuels and has expressed concerns about such proposals in the past, has not yet committed to backing it.
On the other hand, Democratic Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Tom Suozzi of New York, who had unsuccessfully pushed for the party to include relief from state and local taxes, said they’d support it nonetheless.
“This legislation doesn’t raise taxes on families in my district — it reduces the financial burden on them,” Gottheimer said. “For that reason, and for its strong support of the climate, lower prescription drug prices and job creation, I’ll be voting for it.”
If passed by the House, the bill heads to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
Next step: Permitting reform
Manchin was promised a permitting reform package to clear the path for faster energy project development in exchange for his support of the “Inflation Reduction Act.” In the coming weeks, we should see details and votes on that.
“We are moving full steam ahead on comprehensive bipartisan permitting reform so we can efficiently and safely bring more domestic energy projects online,” Manchin said in a statement. “Congress will pass that legislation next month.”
As we wrote last week, however, that separate legislation would need 60 votes in the Senate to pass, and the politics are far from certain.
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Gasoline prices are very close to falling below $4 per gallon on the national average calculated by GasBuddy, a fuel price tracking firm, the company said today.
As of this morning, the average price was $4.01, Patrick De Haan, the company’s communications director, said in a blog post. It could reach $3.99 within the day.
GasBuddy isn’t the only gas price average game in town, though. AAA has a $4.059 national mean.
Climate bill roundup
The climate bill passed by the Senate is a major legislative achievement, but the road to decarbonization is challenging, writes Benjamin Storrow.
New transmission lines need to be permitted and built, batteries need to be installed to back up renewables and emerging energy technologies need to be more widely deployed. That’s not to mention the industrial sector, which has relatively limited technological options. Read the story here.
Still, the bill stands to be a massive boon for clean energy, write Ben Lefebvre, Kelsey Taborrino and Josh Siegel.
It stands to more than triple the clean energy production in the the United States, adding enough to the grid to power 110 million homes, according to the American Clean Power Association. Read that story here.
European gas wars
The European Union is struggling to move away from Russian natural gas after the invasion of Ukraine, and months of political and economic games by Russian President Vladimir Putin have roiled markets, writes America Hernandez. Read more here.
Money is power: Natural gas pipeline companies that stand to benefit from Manchin’s climate deal have given hundreds of thousands to the West Virginia Democrat’s campaign.
Boston’s Green New Deal adviser:Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has named Oliver Sellers-Garcia to be her senior adviser for Green New Deal-related matters.
Not our fault: Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch said his company isn’t to blame for Russia’s refusal to accept delivery of a turbine for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
The science, policy and politics driving the energy transition can feel miles away. But we’re all affected on an individual and communal level — from hotter days and higher gas prices to home insurance rates and food supply.
Want to know more? Send us your questions and we’ll get you answers.
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Democrats are feeling pretty good after the climate bill’s Senate passage, but voters don’t have much of a track record of rewarding political parties for their legislative victories in elections.
Virginia has given the go-ahead to Dominion Energy Inc.’s proposed 176-turbine offshore wind farm, which would be the country’s largest.
The European Union’s commissioner for crisis management wants member countries to expand the European Commission’s power to respond to climate-change-related disasters, which are increasingly frequent.
That’s it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.
