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Top Democrats are ditching carbon pricing and carbon taxes in favor of a policy known as a clean electricity standard.
President Biden placed a clean electricity standard, targeting 100% carbon-free power by 2035, at the center of his aggressive climate plans.
Top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have supported the policy,
making it a centerpiece of their sweeping climate bill, known as the CLEAN Future Act. The final version of that bill, introduced on March 2, adopted Biden’s 2035 target for the power sector, a quicker pace than the 2050 goal that House Democrats had proposed in 2020.
In the Senate, Sen. Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, has previously proposed separate clean electricity standard
Montinique Monroe/Getty Images
Texas entered its third full day cycling in and out of the dark after frigid temperatures triggered a power crisis early Monday morning. A staggering 3.4 million people were still without power on Wednesday morning after rain and snow pelted the state overnight. The state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, couldn’t project when the power would be restored.
When the cold front hit over the weekend, electricity use soared to heat buildings, but the grid couldn’t keep up with demand. Natural gas plants, which supply the majority of the state’s electricity, were not equipped to operate at such low temperatures. Despite widespread false claims spread on Fox News that frozen wind turbines were solely to blame for the blackout, failures at these gas plants are the main cause of the crisis, a spokesperson for ERCOT told Bloomberg.
Source: S&P Global Market Intelligence
Market forces, investor sentiment and existing policies have driven the decline of the U.S. coal fleet in recent years and will likely continue to prompt closures, but the last of the power plants may remain online well past the next decade without policy interventions.
Many utilities have pledged to hit net-zero emissions targets at some point, but details are lacking in the public sphere. U.S. President Joe Biden aims to decarbonize the power sector by 2035 and will likely need to deploy restrictions and incentives for power generators to achieve the goal. Coal will probably continue to be an easy target for elimination, as companies look at options ranging from battery storage to carbon capture to lower emissions.
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Editor’s note: This story is part of the Utility Dive Outlook on 2021, a series on the trends that will shape the industry in 2021. For a look at the business trends affecting other industries, see the Dive Outlook on 2021.
At this time last year, few people if anyone could have predicted what 2020 would bring.
That tumultuous year has not yet led to a calmer one, but if January 2020 taught us anything, it s that the first days of a new year may not always be a sign of what s to come. With that being said, Utility Dive spoke to over half a dozen power sector experts who tentatively predict big changes on the horizon in 2021.
Joe Biden is about to floor it to a green future - can he meet his goal?
Updated Dec 24, 2020;
Posted Dec 24, 2020
President-elect Joe Biden announces his climate and energy team nominees and appointees at The Queen Theater in Wilmington Del., Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)AP
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By Vince Bielski | RealClearInvestigations
Joe Biden needs to put the pedal to the metal as he races toward his goal of ridding America’s energy sources of carbon emissions by 2035. But the president-elect’s headlong rush toward a green future may be slowed by a snarl of political speed limits in the states.