The coronavirus relief package includes aid for vaccine distribution and logistics, extra jobless benefits of $300 per week, and a new round of $600 stimulus checks — half the amount provided in checks distributed last March under the CARES Act.
The energy and climate crisis provisions, amounting to $35 billion was achieved as a bipartisan effort after disagreements stalled a bipartisan Senate energy bill earlier this year.
“It doesn’t have regulations or mandates in it,” Sasha Mackler, director of the energy project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said of the energy package. “But from the bottom up it’s advancing the technology that’s needed. … This is definitely a bill that creates the enabling conditions for decarbonization.”
Despite President Donald Trump’s numerous efforts to roll back climate regulations, the climate crisis package was widely supported by both parties.
Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) helped craft the bipartisan agreement to scale down the use of hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs.
HFCs are used in everything from refrigerators to air conditioning in homes and vehicles. They are considered a major driver of global warming and are being targeted worldwide.
Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), an ally of President-elect Joe Biden and co-sponsor of the HFC provision, called it “a watershed moment” that bodes well for lawmakers interested in working with the incoming administration on climate change, reports the Washington Post.
“The debate on whether climate change is real is over. It is real. It’s not getting better,” Carper said in a recent interview. “Our Republican colleagues, they get it, for the most part.”
Major parts of the energy and climate provision in the spending bill
“This historic agreement includes three separate pieces of legislation that will significantly reduce greenhouse gases,″ Barrasso said, according to the Associated Press.
Included in the energy package is about $4 billion for solar, wind, hydropower, and geothermal research and development; $1.7 billion to help low-income families install renewable energy sources in their homes; $2.6 billion for the Energy Department’s sustainable transportation program; and $500 million for research on reducing industrial emissions.
The bill would also boost renewables by requiring the Interior Department to set goals for wind, solar and geothermal energy production on federal lands. It also says the department should aim to give permits for at least 25 gigawatts of energy from these sources by 2025.
There is also $2.9 billion for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, a program that funds high-risk, high-reward research that Trump has tried to eliminate. But this research is important because it will make emerging clean-energy technology cheaper and more widespread.
“This is an opportunity to not only make significant advances in climate action and reducing HFCs but to help maintain leadership of U.S. technology and our competitiveness in that global market,” said Marty Durbin, an energy lobbyist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest corporate lobbying group in Washington.
“I am proud that this bill secured significant wins when it comes to combating climate change, including the first-ever agreement to phase down hydrofluorocarbons,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a statement. “Are these provisions enough to meet the demands of the science? No. But are they a significant step in the right direction? Yes,” he said.
If anything, this is a good start on President-elect Joe Biden’s environmental; program, and it is a positive indication that our lawmakers are able to work together.
