A changing climate threatens Oregon and states across the
country. Rising global temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions pose
serious and urgent challenges — everything from rising oceans that threaten
coastal communities to acute drought conditions and devastating wildfires
statewide.
Achieving the post-carbon world President Biden laid out
last month will require major investments in clean energy infrastructure. Key
to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a core cause of global warming, is the
development and deployment of new technologies and cost-effective sources of
renewable power.
The Clean Energy for America Act scheduled for a mark-up
this month in the Senate Finance Committee would reduce greenhouse gases by
accelerating the development of new clean energy sources and creating tens of
thousands of good jobs nationwide. The fiscal engine of this legislation links
tax policy to energy policy in supporting the transition to a clean energy
future without overburdening taxpayers or utility customers.
The current tax code carves up renewable energy into a
confusing and obsolete hodgepodge of more than 40 different tax breaks for
various energy sources and technologies. There’s one set of incentives for
solar, another set for wind, and so on. Most of the incentives woven into these
policies are temporary, leaving the clean-energy business and its employees in
a permanent state of limbo.
Meanwhile, the tax breaks for oil and gas companies are
permanent. When fossil-fuel interests get special permanent breaks compared
with everyone else, the tax-policy environment forces Americans to subsidize
the climate crisis.
The Clean Energy for America Act at long last jettisons this
convoluted patchwork of credits and creates a level playing field by
establishing one simple technology-neutral standard that incentivizes all
zero-emitting technologies equally – even ones that haven’t been invented yet.
It focuses on the three most important areas: green transportation
(gasoline-powered vehicles are the leading source of greenhouse gases); green
energy (power plants are the second-largest source) and efficiency (to reduce
demand overall).
While the auto industry has made sizable gains with hybrid
and electric vehicles, significantly more charging infrastructure is a must to
propel the needed growth of this key sector.
The Edison Electric Institute’s members, representing the
nation’s investor-owned utilities, have cut carbon emissions by 33 percent from
2005 levels and have even more ambitious goals of 80 percent reductions by
2050. And, many companies, such as PGE, are pledging even faster, more
aggressive timelines. PGE, Oregon’s largest provider of electricity, is leading
the way, and just this past year retired a coal plant and replaced the
generation with wind, solar and energy storage all seamlessly integrated.
The proposed Clean Energy for America Act also establishes a
single threshold to qualify for tax credits on storage facilities as advanced
utility-scale batteries play an essential part of the clean-energy mix. The
bill’s direct pay options mitigate the often needed tax-equity transactions,
cutting out heavy discounts by large commercial and investment banks, getting
the benefits directly to offset technology and development costs and in the
hands of customers.
Finally, the Clean Energy for America Act helps ensure
family-supporting jobs by requiring prevailing wages. Clean energy generation
already employs nearly as many workers as oil and gas production – with
virtually all new job growth expected to come from renewable development.
Significant investment is needed to reach our nation’s
ambitious climate goals and a well-designed tax policy will help accelerate
that transition by encouraging all players to make significant investments and
reduce emissions as reliably and affordably as possible.
The legislation is backed by a diverse coalition of
interests including the Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club, the
Natural Resources Defense Council, the Blue Green Alliance, numerous public and
investor-owned utilities, the Edison Electric Institute and building trades. It
will take everyone working together to transform our nation’s energy sector on
the rapid timeline that climate science demands because our energy future must
be clean, reliable and affordable.
