E&E News
Summary
Democrats on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis will recommend a federal clean electricity standard, a carbon price and a national net-zero emissions goal, as part of the wide-ranging report they will officially unveil Tuesday, June 30.
The long-awaited document, which runs 538 pages, was crafted largely without input from the panel's Republicans and is widely seen as a climate guide for Democrats if they win control of government in 2021.
Democrats will roll out the document tomorrow morning at a press conference with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
"The Climate Crisis Action Plan outlined in this report provides a roadmap for Congress to build a prosperous, clean energy economy that values workers, advances environmental justice, and is prepared to meet the challenges of the climate crisis," says the report, a copy of which was obtained by E&E News.
The report recommends that Congress set a national goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, with interim targets in 2030 and 2040.
To reach that goal, the report suggests a wide variety of policies covering energy efficiency, agriculture and tax incentives.
They include a clean energy standard to reach net-zero emissions in the power sector by 2040 and "a technology-neutral national [zero-emission vehicle] sales standard to ensure all light-duty vehicles sold by 2035 are zero-emission."
While the report does not offer a specific vision or timetable for a carbon tax, it argues that a price on carbon should be complementary to a set of other climate policies.
"Congress should consider a carbon price as only one tool to complement a suite of policies to achieve deep pollution reductions and strengthen community resilience to climate impacts," the report says. "Carbon pricing is not a silver bullet."
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