September 24, 2015

By William Pentland

U.S. Senate Democrats revealed an ambitious climate and energy bill on Tuesday that would accelerate efforts to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions to levels below the targets pursued by the Obama administration.

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Senator Maria Cantwell, the leading Democrat from Washington on the Senate Energy Committee, presented the legislation as a cornerstone of the party's plan for reducing emissions at least 34 percent by 2025.

The consensus view inside the beltway appears to be that the bill has very little chance of passing in a Republican-controlled Congress, according to Reuters. Nevertheless, the legislation provides a preview of the Democratic Party's priorities on energy and climate policy, which is especially relevant if the Democrats regain control of the Senate next year.

Here are the highlights of the proposed legislation:

• Mandate a national reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by at least 2 percent annually until 2025.
• Establish an energy efficiency resource standard that requires utilities to achieve 20 percent energy savings by 2030.
• Extend clean energy tax credits until 2018, including the wind production tax credit set to expire at the end of this year.
• Repeal several tax credits and incentives for the production and refining of oil and natural gas.
• Instruct the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether utilities are operating the grid in a way that discourages off-grid renewable energy production.

The legislation is also notable for what it does not include. In particular, there is no mention of a carbon tax, cap and trade programs or similar mechanisms for imposing a price on carbon emissions. The carbon tax was a central and immensely controversial component of the "cap and trade" bill that failed early in Obama's presidency.

"This is going to be a huge issue in the 2016 campaign," said Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, who is expected to become the Senate Democratic leader after the current leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, retires next year. "A plan that looks something like this is going to be high on the next Congress's agenda."

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