WASHINGTON-Reuters This week, a coalition of U.S. electricity companies wrote to President Joe Biden saying it would collaborate with his administration and Congress to design a broad range of policies to achieve a near-term target of cutting carbon emissions by 2030.
Washington should enact policies, including a clean energy standard or CES, to ensure that the electricity industry reduces carbon emissions by 80% below 2005 levels by 2030, the group of 13 power stakeholders, including Exelon Corp, PSEG, and Talen Energy Corp, said in a letter to Biden.
The letter, a copy of which Reuters saw, did not discuss Biden’s aim of decarbonizing the power sector by 2035 as part of his climate change strategy. But it said the 2030 timetable matches Biden’s broader target of decarbonizing the entire economy by 2050.
“A federal policy structure should be structured to promote the implementation of technically feasible strategies by the power sector, ensure efficiency, and keep customers affordable,” the letter said Friday to Biden.
The White House did not immediately respond to a comment message.
The 2030 target was consistent with Evergreen Action, a community that proposed a CES in February. Co-founder Sam Ricketts said utilities should think less about the 2035 target and concentrate on early wins as the last component of emission cuts is the toughest to achieve.
Several politicians, including U.S. Democrats Representative Frank Pallone and Senator Tina Smith, also introduced CES legislation.
The standard will set increasingly increasing goals for the power sector to reduce emissions until they reach net-zero, using a variety of wind and solar methods, using current and advanced nuclear power, or sucking carbon from coal and natural gas plants until they enter the atmosphere.
The White House included CES in its $2.3 trillion infrastructure package this month without explaining how it would work.
Some CES proposals include flexibility, such as allowing utilities to receive bankable credits in the early years that could be used for enforcement in later years when reducing emissions becomes more difficult.
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