E&C Leaders Release Draft Clean Future Act Legislative Text to Achieve a 100 Percent Clean Economy

January 29, 2020

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(U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce) Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee Chairman Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Energy Subcommittee Chairman Bobby L. Rush (D-IL) today released legislative text of the draft Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s (CLEAN) Future Act – an ambitious new climate plan to ensure the United States achieves net-zero greenhouse gas pollution no later than 2050.

“This draft legislation presents a set of comprehensive, specific steps for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas pollution,” Pallone, Tonko and Rush said. “Every day, communities across the country are paying the price for inaction through record wildfires, flooding and drought, and Congress cannot afford to simply watch from the sidelines. The CLEAN Future Act treats this climate crisis like the emergency that it is, while also setting the foundation for strengthening our economy and creating good paying jobs for a clean and climate-resilient future. We look forward to continuing to work with all impacted stakeholders on this proposal in the coming months.”

The CLEAN Future Act is a comprehensive proposal of sector-specific and economy-wide solutions to address the climate crisis. Critically, the CLEAN Future Act formally adopts the goal of achieving a 100 percent clean economy by 2050. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, avoiding the most catastrophic outcomes of climate change requires meeting this target. To that end, the draft bill incorporates both proven and novel concepts, presenting a comprehensive set of policy proposals within the Committee’s jurisdiction that will put the U.S. on the path to a clean and prosperous economy.

Today’s release of the draft legislative text follows the announcement of the legislative framework earlier this month and is the result of the Committee’s ongoing work to seriously and meaningfully tackle the climate crisis. To date, the Committee has held 15 hearings addressing the climate crisis, including seven focused on how best to facilitate deep decarbonization of various sectors of our economy.

The Committee is requesting feedback and recommendations from all stakeholders as it continues to expand and refine the CLEAN Future Act. To that end, hearings and stakeholder meetings will continue throughout the coming year. Feedback can be submitted to CleanFuture@mail.house.gov.

The draft legislative text is available HERE and a section-by-section is available HERE. READ MORE

E&C CLIMATE BILL OUT: (Politico's Morning Energy)

Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez Lead First-Ever Bill to Ban Fracking Nationwide (Office of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT))

Sanders introduces bill to ban fracking (The Hill)

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: Democrats on the House E&C Committee released their 622-page climate change bill for feedback on Tuesday, Pro's Anthony Adragna reports. No word on a markup date as they gather input on the sweeping legislation. The measure contains lots of dense policy meant to achieve net-zero emissions in all major segments of the economy, but here's some notable provisions that immediately caught ME's eye.

New requirements for EPA to set emissions standards for cars, trucks, locomotive and aircraft engines (Sec. 401);
Strengthened requirements concerning coal ash disposal and storage (Sec. 612);
New mandates under the Superfund statute that companies have financial assurance for impacts likely to happen due to climate change or extreme weather (Sec. 621);
Directs EPA to issue new rules delivering 90 percent reduction of methane emissions from oil and gas sources below 2012 levels by 2030 (Sec. 701);
Requirements that each state develop its own plan for reaching net-zero emissions (Sec. 801);
Creates a nonprofit national climate bank to "provide financing for low- and zero-emissions energy technologies" and other clean-energy projects (Sec. 811).
A new national Clean Energy Standard that will require utilities to get increasing amounts of their power from zero-carbon sources, culminating in 100 percent in 2050, and pay escalating fines if they cannot comply (Sec. 203);
Sets national policy to prioritize transmission lines for clean energy (Sec. 211) and directs FERC to open an investigation on how to expand them (Sec. 212);
Directs FERC to take climate change into account when evaluating natural gas pipelines (Sec. 215) and prohibits pipelines from using eminent domain powers until they have all necessary state and federal permits (Sec. 216);
Reverses some recent FERC changes to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act by mandating fixed contracts for qualifying generators (Sec. 224);

Greens displeased: Sierra Club climate policy director Liz Perera said "it's concerning that on what is perhaps the central question of climate policy, what counts as clean energy, this bill includes options that could leave a door open to gas and coal." Friends of the Earth senior policy analyst Lukas Ross was more direct: "Chairman [Frank] Pallone is posing as an environmentalist, while trying to keep the door wide open for fracked gas. This is the opposite of climate leadership."

Republicans scoff: Ranking member Greg Walden dismissed the bill in a statement: "When you do the same thing over and over again, you shouldn't expect a different result," he said.

REPUBLICANS WANT DEETS ON EV TAX CREDIT: A group of 15 Republican senators, including Chuck Grassley, Ron Johnson, and John Barrasso, sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig calling for more details on how the IRS enforces the electric vehicle tax credit. The letter follows a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration audit report that detailed more than 16,000 individual tax returns that received potentially erroneous EV credits between 2014 and 2018. "Notably, in 2011, TIGTA released an audit finding $33 million in tax credits for plug-in electric drive motor vehicles—one in five of every claimed tax credit—were awarded to individuals who owned vehicles that did not qualify," the senators wrote. "In other words, despite recognizing this fraud eight years ago, it has not only persisted but become even more widespread." READ MORE