House GOP takes ax to Democratic clean energy credits with debt ceiling proposal

Jeremy Beaman

April 19, 04:32 PM April 19, 04:32 PM

House Republicans proposed new debt ceiling legislation Wednesday that would repeal nearly a dozen clean energy subsidies recently authorized by the Democratic Inflation Reduction Act as a way to reduce federal spending.

The GOP proposal would cut or shrink numerous of the tax credits that President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress signed off on in August to expand renewable energy technologies, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and accelerate their climate change agenda, including the new tax credit for consumer purchases of used electric vehicles.

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Other tax credits that would be repealed include the law's zero-emission nuclear power credit and the new tax $7,500 hundred tax credit for light-duty electric vehicles purchased for commercial use.

The debt ceiling bill also includes elements of HR 1, the House Republican sweeping energy proposal that would increase domestic production of fossil fuels and ease permitting for mining.

"The Limit, Save, Grow Act will limit federal spending, save taxpayers trillions of dollars, grow our economy, and lift the debt limit into next year," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said. "This legislation will make us less dependent on the whims of the Chinese Communist Party and curb high inflation, all without touching Social Security or Medicare — because no one is hurt more by inflation than seniors."

Republicans have argued the Inflation Reduction Act's tax credits strengthen the advantage of China, which dominates various industries that produce batteries, solar products, and their upstream supply chains.

The law included language designed to bring those industries home or enable their expansion in trade partner countries, although some Democrats, most notably the chief author, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), have complained that the administration is implementing the law too liberally to achieve those goals.

The White House is blasting Republicans' effort to repeal Biden's signature achievement, flipping the script to say their proposal would favor China.

"Let's be clear what MAGA attacks on the Inflation Reduction Act would mean for American families," press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. "Offshore tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs, including in districts many of these members actually represent."

The legislation unveiled Wednesday is McCarthy's first offer in talks with Biden to raise the federal debt ceiling. The limit must be raised by some time this summer or early fall to prevent the Treasury from defaulting on the debt, a prospect the Treasury has said would create massive economic turmoil. Biden has said that he won't negotiate with Republicans over raising the debt limit and has challenged the House GOP to produce a budget resolution to show their plans for taxing and spending.

Diablo Canyon nuclear plant cleared to operate past 2025

Breanne Deppisch

March 02, 05:56 PM March 02, 05:56 PM

Pacific Gas & Electric can continue to operate the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant past its scheduled closing date in 2025, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled Thursday, a significant decision aimed at ensuring grid reliability in California.

The decision allows PG&E to keep the plant online so long as the utility completes a lengthy relicensing process before Dec. 31, 2023, which requires it to outline a plan to address issues related to the safety and integrity of its reactors.

Still, it is major win for Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) and other state lawmakers who had pushed for the extension, citing threats to the state's power grid during periods of peak demand.

Lawmakers in October overwhelmingly approved a measure to approve Diablo's operations through 2030 and granted a $1.4 billion loan to PG&E to keep the plant online.

Diablo Canyon, located on the coast in San Luis Obispo County, is a major source of power in the state, supplying roughly 17% of California’s greenhouse-gas-free electricity supply and 8.6% of the state's total electricity.

Efforts to keep the nuclear power plant open come as California battles extreme heat, wildfires, and other events that have strained the state’s electric grid.

Diablo “continues to be an important resource as we transition away from fossil fuel generation to greater amounts of clean energy, with the goal of achieving 100 percent clean electric retail sales by 2045,” Newsom's office said in a statement last fall.

The NRC said in a news release that the exemption would “not present undue risk to the public health and safety, and is consistent with the common defense and security.”

It also reaffirms a decision from the California Energy Commission, which ruled this week that keeping Diablo online through 2030 is necessary to keep the lights on in the state.

“As California confronts a rapidly changing climate, extraordinary heat events and record energy demand are becoming increasingly ordinary. The state needs to keep all options on the table to protect public health and safety,” California Energy Commission Vice Chairman Siva Gunda said in a statement. “This includes maintaining Diablo Canyon’s operations.”

High heat and wildfire conditions have stressed the state's power grid to near collapse in recent years, including in 2022, when the state endured its longest and most intense heat wave on record. Historic drought has also reduced its ability to generate hydropower by 48%.

A recent study published by the Brattle Group found that extending Diablo Canyon’s capacity could help California decarbonize “more quickly, more reliably, and at a lower cost” — approximately $5 billion less — than if the plant shut down in 2025 as previously planned.

California has tried to transition away from nuclear in recent years but endured scrutiny after its 2012 closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, or SONGS.

A 2016 study published in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics found that in the 12-month period after the Southern California facility was shuttered, the power it generated was largely replaced by natural gas, increasing emissions and driving up costs for consumers by an estimated $350 million that year alone.

In the 12 months following the closure of SONGS, researchers found that carbon emissions also rose by 9 million metric tons — the equivalent of putting an additional 2 million gas-consuming cars on the road.

Russia's war has mobilized $500 billion in clean energy spending

Breanne Deppisch

December 25, 06:30 AM December 25, 06:30 AM

Russia’s war in Ukraine has accelerated the pace of clean energy spending, according to a report from the world’s leading energy agency, sparking $500 billion in new government investments alone, as leaders seek to transition away from fossil fuels and keep costs down for consumers.

The two primary drivers of government clean energy spending this year were concerns over energy security and soaring costs of commodities, according to the International Energy Agency’s Government Energy Spending Tracker.

In Europe, the energy crisis sent natural gas prices soaring to a record high of more than 300 euros per megawatt hour in August, touching off fears of an affordability crisis, while gas prices in the U.S. reached an all-time high of more than $5 per gallon in June.

But the crisis has also led governments to embrace clean energy policies in an effort to decrease global demand for every type of fossil fuel in the near future. As a result of the shift to clean energy, coal use will peak within the next few years before declining, while natural gas demand will plateau by 2030, the report said. Total renewable capacity growth is set to nearly double in the next five years, the report found, overtaking coal as the largest source of electricity generation.

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The U.S. was at the fore of clean energy spending this year, according to the tracker, largely due to its August passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which allocates more than $360 billion in clean energy and climate spending. It was followed closely by the European Union — and particularly, the governments of Finland, France, and Germany.

Other countries, including Japan and South Korea, have also ramped up their renewable energy investments this year. Japan announced the launch of its Green Transformation program, which invests in clean energy technologies such as nuclear, low-emissions hydrogen, and ammonia, while South Korea has accelerated its efforts to increase the amount of nuclear power and renewable sources in its energy mix.

Energy security was a major concern this year, especially in the European Union, which depended heavily on Russian fossil fuels prior to the war. But in the 10 months since Russia’s invasion, the bloc has raced to accelerate clean energy projects, such as solar, wind, and nuclear power, bringing down its total demand for natural gas and oil by 20% this decade, and coal demand by 50%.

Meanwhile, Inflation Reduction Act investments put the U.S. on track to see its annual solar and wind capacity increase by 2.5 times by 2030, compared to today’s levels, and electric vehicle sales increase by seven times the current amount.

In total, the new national investments in clean energy bring to $1.22 trillion the amount that governments have allocated to clean energy since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

That funding has also substantially incentivized spending by the private sector, the IEA found: Government spending is expected to mobilize flows of private investment by another 50% by 2030, reaching more than $2 trillion annually.

“The responses from governments to the crisis are going in the right direction,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement.

“The unprecedented financial support we are seeing for clean energy transitions is improving energy security and dampening the impact of high fuel prices on customers," he said.