The Public Supports Clean Energy but Politics Is Preventing Win-Wins

An August United Nations scientific assessment concluded that “unequivocal” evidence shows human activities have inflicted “widespread and rapid changes” across the planet. In September, another UN report prompted the secretary general to warn, “The world is on a catastrophic pathway” even if all Paris Agreement commitments are met. To the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Rachel Cleetus, her organization is now “beyond concerned,” with members’ feeling “heartbroken” by worsening climate damage and “alarmed” and “angry” at policymakers’ failure to act.

Frustration runs deep, not only because the climate crisis is mounting but also because major policy advances are so tantalizingly close and hold out prospects for win-win actions.

In September, following an intensive two-day markup, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a major portion of the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package. The bill included a $150 billion Clean Electricity Performance Program that environmentalists and Democratic sponsors argue would generate almost eight million jobs, $1 trillion in economic activity over the next 10 years, and serve as the “most powerful tool” for decarbonizing the power sector. The Department of Energy would offer electricity suppliers grants if they increase their clean supply by four percent compared with their previous year’s performance, and would penalize generators that fail to.

But Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), whose vote is indispensable for Democrats to pass a reconciliation bill in the 50-50 divided Senate, opposes both the CEPP and the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion package full of clean energy funding.

Another significant clean energy proposal that has galvanized attention is a DOE study described as “the most comprehensive review to date” of solar energy’s potential role in decarbonizing both the U.S. electricity grid and broader energy system. The study concludes that solar energy could “power all of the homes in the U.S. by 2035 and employ as many as 1.5 million people in the process,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a statement. But Granholm emphasized that “strong decarbonization policies” will be needed to raise solar energy’s level from its current 3 percent to 40 percent (or 1,000 gigawatts) by 2035, and as high as 3,000 gigawatts by 2050.

However, as noted by the CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, Abigail Ross Hopper, “policy, plain and simple” will be the greatest hurdle to raising solar to 40 percent. “The blueprint is there, the American people support it, and now it’s up to policymakers to make it happen,” she says.

Greg Wetstone, CEO of the broad-based nonprofit American Council on Renewable Energy, expresses optimism that legislation can move forward, despite the challenges of “default partisanship on every issue.” DOE’s solar study demonstrates that the United States can make the needed clean energy transition “rapidly enough” without increasing electricity costs to consumers, “two really important conclusions.” Democrats’ reconciliation bill policies will be “foundational” both for achieving the study’s targets and for driving national economic growth, he adds.

SEIA’s Hopper also emphasizes the solar study’s significance in helping to “make it clearer than ever that solar is a real solution to the climate crisis.” With the right policies, the U.S. can decarbonize its electric grid using solar and storage while keeping electricity costs low and generating hundreds of thousands of new career opportunities across the country, she says.

Among necessary policies are the CEPP and a 30 percent investment tax credit for solar. The House panel’s September markup includes investment tax credits for solar and for storage, and other provisions that SEIA and more than 700 solar companies called for in a letter to President Joe Biden and congressional leaders. Although SEIA is “encouraged” by the “sweeping climate and energy legislation” approved by the House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees, says Hopper, she cautions that “there is a long road ahead in getting legislation to the president’s desk.”

Doubtless, intense legislative fights can be expected. But Wetstone underscores reasons to be hopeful that “some version of the CEPP” and other critical policies will proceed, including Biden’s unprecedented presidential commitment to climate action, as well as the increasingly visible “horrific, immediate implications” of climate change. Moreover, he says, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is signaling “a really dramatic change” in rules allowing renewable energy to compete in electricity markets. But the movement toward clean energy has to be “accelerated on a climate time frame,” he adds.

Here’s hoping climate evidence and redoubled legislative efforts make 2021 a year of win-win policy breakthroughs.