The deal, which Senate Democrats announced late Wednesday and hope to pass as early as next week, shocked even some who had been involved in climate legislation negotiations over the past year. The announcement of a deal, after many activists had given up hope, almost immediately reinstated the United States’ role in the global effort to combat climate change. And it was delivered by Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, the hard-line Democrat who had been reviled by environmentalists and some of his colleagues after saying this month that he could not support a climate bill because of inflation concerns. “By far, this legislation will be the most pro-climate legislation ever passed by Congress,” Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, said in announcing the deal with Mr. Manchin. The bill aims to tackle global warming by using billions of dollars in tax incentives to boost the wind, solar, geothermal, battery and other clean energy industries over the next decade. Companies would be financially incentivized to keep nuclear plants open that might have been shut down, or to capture emissions from industrial facilities and bury them underground before they could warm the planet. Car buyers with incomes below a certain level will receive a tax credit of $7,500 to buy a new electric vehicle and $4,000 for a used one. Americans would receive rebates to install heat pumps and make their homes more energy efficient. “This is the action the American people have been waiting for,” President Biden said, hailing the bill’s “investments in our energy security for the future.” Senate Democrats estimated the legislation would allow the United States to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, putting the nation within striking distance of aggressive climate goals set by Mr. Biden. last year. Mr Biden wants to cut US emissions to at least 50 per cent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade, the pace scientists say the whole world needs to meet to curb global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. That’s the threshold beyond which scientists say the likelihood of catastrophic floods, wildfires, storms and droughts increases significantly. The planet has already warmed by about 1.1 degrees in the past century. The bill “keeps us in the climate race and makes it possible for executive action, state and local government policies, and private sector leadership to get us to the finish line,” said Jesse Jenkins of Princeton University. , who modeled the results of previous editions. of the legislation. “Without this bill, we would be hopelessly short of our climate goals.” Diplomats and climate experts said they hoped the deal would reinvigorate international efforts to tackle global warming, which has stalled in recent months as the war in Ukraine and rising oil prices have led many countries to focus on boosting fossil fuel reserves. The world’s governments are far from doing what they need to do to meet the 1.5 degree target, and leaders are scheduled to meet in Egypt in November to discuss stepping up their efforts.
Understand what happened to Biden’s domestic agenda
Card 1 of 7 “Build back better.” Before being elected president in 2020, Joseph R. Biden Jr. laid out his ambitious vision for his administration under the slogan “Build Back Better,” pledging to invest in clean energy and ensure procurement spending goes toward American-made products. A two part agenda. March and April 2021: President Biden unveiled two plans that together formed the core of his domestic agenda: the American Jobs Plan, focused on infrastructure, and the American Families Plan, which included a variety of social policy initiatives. The Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act. November 15, 2021: President Biden signed a $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law, the result of months of negotiations. The president hailed the package, a revamped version of what had been outlined in the American Jobs Plan, as proof that US lawmakers could still work across party lines. A surprise deal. July 28, 2022: In a reversal, Mr. Manchin said he had agreed to a deal to include hundreds of billions of dollars in climate and energy programs and tax increases in a package to subsidize health care and lower prescription drug costs . The climate package proposals will be the most ambitious climate action ever taken by Congress. “We all needed good news,” said Tina Stege, the climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, which are at risk of disappearing under rising seas. The climate deal “puts much-needed wind in our sails”, he said, although he warned that “we remain far from where we need to be”. Jonathan Pershing, who served as Mr. Biden’s deputy climate change envoy until January, said he had raised concerns in recent weeks from his former counterparts in Africa and China who were acutely aware of the apparent collapse of climate change legislation. the US climate. “They said, ‘OK, you’re not going to do this, so why should we,’” Mr. Pershing recalled. “I think now you have a radically different narrative.” Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, said the legislation would restore American credibility in international negotiations. “You can’t preach austerity from a bar stool and you can’t ask China, India, Brazil or other countries to reduce emissions if we don’t do it ourselves in a significant way,” he said. Senate Republicans unanimously oppose the legislation. “This is nothing but an attack on the American family,” Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, said in a statement. “If we want to reduce inflation, reduce energy costs and reduce the deficit, the recipe is clear. Congress should cut spending and free up American oil and gas production.” The bill would affect almost every aspect of energy production in the US. It includes $30 billion in incentives for companies to build solar panels, wind turbines and batteries and process critical minerals in the United States, aimed at reversing the long-term migration of clean energy production to China and elsewhere. The companies said they were ready to respond quickly. QCells, a South Korea-based solar energy company that is already building a $171 million assembly plant in Dalton, Ga., plans a multibillion-dollar expansion of its supply chains in the United States if the bill passes, said Scott Moskowitz, chief of QCells. market strategy and public affairs. Also included is $60 billion to address the disproportionate burden of pollution on low-income communities and communities of color. $27 billion for a “green bank” aimed at providing financial support to clean energy projects. and $20 billion for agricultural emissions reduction programs. The bill would also crack down on leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas wells, pipelines and other infrastructure. By 2026, polluters would face a penalty of $1,500 per ton of methane released into the atmosphere beyond federal limits. The methane fee would raise $6.3 billion from the oil and gas industry over a decade, much of which would be reinvested in measures to prevent methane leaks. The bill’s most immediate effect, energy experts said, will be to accelerate the development of wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicle production in the United States. Renewable energy production has slowed significantly this year due to pandemic-related disruptions, trade disputes and uncertainty over federal policy, according to a recent report by the American Clean Power Association, which represents wind and solar power companies and battery makers. “The entire clean energy industry just breathed a huge sigh of relief,” said Heather Zichal, the association’s chief executive. “This is an 11th-hour reprieve for climate action and clean energy jobs.” For decades, the United States has provided wind and solar tax credits that expire after one to two years, subjecting the industry to a boom-and-bust cycle until the credits are renewed. Under the new legislation, the tax credits will last for up to 10 years, to give companies the confidence to make long-term investment decisions. The bill, however, does not address one of the biggest hurdles facing renewable energy: the lack of long-distance transmission lines to help bring wind and solar power to cities from remote rural areas. An earlier version of the bill included new conveyancing tax credits, but that was removed. Without that forecast, many wind and solar projects could struggle to build, said Rob Gramlich, founder of Grid Strategies. In the long term, the tax incentives in the bill are expected to foster emerging technologies such as carbon capture for industrial facilities such as steel and cement, next-generation nuclear reactors and the use of hydrogen as a low-carbon fuel. Many of these technologies are too expensive for widespread use today, but the hope is that by creating a market for an initial round of projects, costs could come down — just as federal tax credits in the 2000s and 2010s helped transform wind and solar power from an expensive niche technology to an affordable mainstream option. But the climate change breakthrough also includes a number of provisions on fossil fuels, a concession seen as necessary to win support from Mr. Manchin, whose home state of West Virginia is rich in coal and natural gas. . For example, the bill would mandate new lease sales for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico…
