Heavy lifting on slashing emissions—now and later
Data Dive
President Biden’s pledge to the Paris Climate Agreement to cut America’s emissions in half by 2030 could be met largely by reductions in the electricity sector, according to a report by the research firm Rhodium Group released Tuesday.
The report underscores two things: 1) The importance of cleaning up the electricity sector today with zero-emission sources such as wind, solar and nuclear power; and 2) the need to invest in technologies today that can clean up other sectors later to meet Biden’s 2050 goal of net-zero emissions.
The policies the group analyzed includes most of the provisions in the Senate-passed infrastructure bill and the budget reconciliation package under debate now, along with federal regulations, state policies and private company commitments (check out page 13-15 for the whole list).
Importantly though, the analysis doesn’t include provisions whose inclusion in final law is particularly uncertain, including the Clean Electricity Performance Program or a direct price on any emissions.