Page 9 - NorthAmOil Week 42 2021

NorthAmOil POLICY NorthAmOil

The Clean Electricity
Performance
Programme would have
rewarded utilities for
switching to low-carbon
power and penalised
them for not doing so.

increase by 4% the clean electricity sold to con- University, after the news about the CEPP broke.
sumers every year from 2023-2030. The federal “W/out a clean energy standard in the recon-
grant offered to them if they succeed would ciliation package, Biden admin cannot meet a
equal $150 for each megawatt-hour (MWh) of pledge of 50% reduction in U.S. carbon emis-
qualified clean electricity. Failure to meet the 4% sions by 2030. And international climate nego-
goal would lead to a debt of $40 per MWh of tiations begin to collapse.”
shortfall. Biden has called for the electricity sector to
The grant would apply to all clean power generate 80% of its power from clean energy by
produced by an eligible utility above 1.5% of 2030, up from half that currently.
the clean electricity supply of the year before. John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, told the
Clean electricity must not generate more Associated Press recently that if Congress fails to
than 0.1 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent per pass major climate change legislation, “it would
MWh, meaning that it cannot include natural be like President Trump pulling out of the Paris
gas. agreement, again.”
The CEPP would push the US to generate 73% Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat,
of its energy from no-carbon sources within a told the Guardian: “They will look ridiculous if
decade, preventing at least 400mn tonnes of car- they show up with nothing. It would be bad for
bon emissions, says the Rhodium Group. US leadership, bad for the talks and disastrous
Manchin, from coal-rich West Virginia, is not for the climate. Just disastrous.
only a key swing voter, but he is also chairman “The vast majority of Senate Democrats
of the Senate Committee on Energy and Nat- understand this is our last chance to act,” White-
ural Resources and as such can shape energy house added.
legislation. The reconciliation bill does still include
Manchin’s personal ties to the coal indus- extensions to tax credits for wind and solar, as
try have become well-known. He has recently well as green hydrogen, but it is not enough.
received more campaign donations from the oil, Because the CEPP looks dead, Democrats are
coal and gas industries than any other senator now reportedly considering adding a modest
in the US in this current election cycle, accord- carbon tax to the bill, of $15-18 a tonne. The tax
ing to OpenSecrets, which researches political would not apply to gasoline, to assuage voters.
spending. Experts say that a carbon tax must be in the
Manchin also owns stock valued at between range of $50-80 to be aggressive enough to make
$1mn and 5mn in Enersystems, a coal brokerage enough difference.
On October 19, firm that he founded in 1988 and passed on to “If you were to replace the clean electricity
his son. According to the National Public Radio, programme with a price on carbon, I think
it appeared that in 2020 alone he made $491,949 in dividends that would go a long way. It would put back a
Biden’s aides had from the stock. lot of the stick elements that were removed,”
The CEPP has been part of the Democrats’ Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist and policy
pared back his reconciliation package, which basically encom- analyst at the Breakthrough Institute, an energy
passes Biden’ plan, and which party leaders are and climate research organisation, told the New
package to $2 trying to pass without Republican support by York Times.
October 31. But if Manchin gets his way, which
If a modest carbon tax rises 5% a year, it could
trillion. seems likely, and the CEPP is dropped from the cut 45% of the US’s carbon pollution within a
bill, some progressive Democrat senators may decade, according to Resources for the Future,
withdraw their support. essentially giving the same result as the CEPP.
The loss of the CEPP is important not only But politically, a carbon tax is almost impossible
because of how it would help Biden meet his in the US, a country in which tax increases are
goal of the US cutting its emissions 50% from anathema.
2005 levels by 2030. The timing is also difficult, Ron Wyden, a Democrat and chairman of
as it comes two weeks before the COP 26 talks the Senate Finance Committee, has already
in Glasgow, when Biden will want to show the drafted a carbon pricing bill and says he has
US as taking aggressive action against climate been waiting for the right time to introduce it.
change. The talks start on October 31. Manchin is unlikely to support it – indeed he
“Joe Manchin just launched a hand grenade says a carbon tax is not in Biden’s plan – and he
at Glasgow,” tweeted Michael Mann, director of may be joined in his reluctance by other mod-
the Earth System Science Center at Penn State erate Democrats.™

Week 42 21•October•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9