Green Tech Media by Julian Spector January 26, 2021
Beating a Senate filibuster is unlikely, but some analysts see budget reconciliation as a way to enact a clean-energy transformation.Now that President Joe Biden has assumed office, he can get to work on his pledge to move the nation to 100 percent clean energy.
During the campaign, Biden advocated a 100 percent clean energy standard pegged to 2035. This builds on state-level renewable portfolio standards, which spurred tremendous growth in renewables by mandating that utilities buy or produce a certain amount of clean power by certain deadlines. Biden wants to apply the concept nationally while front-loading investment in clean energy and technology to bring down costs.
Biden said he would make this policy technology-neutral, letting power companies choose the portfolio that makes sense to them. Still, coal- and gas-burning plants would have to go, and by 2035. That's a more ambitious timeline than states that passed their own 100 percent clean energy targets: Hawaii, California and others chose 2045 deadlines. Nearly all major electric utilities have pledged to go carbon-neutral or zero out emissions by 2045 or 2050.
Whether transforming the nation's electricity system in 15 years is possible remains an open question. Studies indicate that systemic decarbonization is feasible while keeping electricity reliable and affordable. It will surely require an unprecedented ramp-up of renewable construction and grid infrastructure investment, and likely some level of reliance on unproven emerging technologies.
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