It’s Friday, August 27, and Congress might actually put the U.S. on the path to meet the Paris Agreement.
In a letter sent to colleagues this week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that the bipartisan infrastructure bill and reconciliation package that are working their way through Congress would together put the U.S. on the path to meeting President Joe Biden’s climate goals.
That conclusion comes from an analysis conducted by Schumer’s office, which showed that climate provisions in both bills would reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. Adding in the projected effects of policies planned by states like New York, California, and Hawaii, Schumer said the U.S. would reach a 50 percent reduction in emissions by 2030. Biden has committed to a 50 to 52 percent reduction in emissions by that year, in line with the 2016 Paris climate agreement.
The most effective federal provisions are in the reconciliation package, which Democrats hope to pass with a simple majority in the Senate. That package currently contains a clean electricity payment program that would incentivize electric utilities to provide 80 percent of their power from carbon-free sources by 2030, as well as tax breaks for clean energy projects. Together, those two programs would account for 42 percent of Schumer’s projected emissions cuts from both pieces of legislation.
Schumer wrote in the letter, “At the same moment that historic drought and wildfire threaten the West and powerful floods and hurricanes impact large swaths of our country, we are on the precipice of the most significant climate action in our country’s history.”
The Smog
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