Bipartisan lawmakers back clean electricity standard, but fall short of Biden goal

Bipartisan House lawmakers are showing support for a standard aiming to reduce the electric sector’s carbon dioxide emissions 80 percent by 2050. 

The legislation gives bipartisan support to an idea endorsed by President Biden while also falling significantly short of the emissions reductions for which the president has called.

The White House has endorsed making the entire electric sector emissions-free by 2035.

The bill, called the Clean Energy Future through Innovation Act, isn’t new. Reps. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) are reintroducing legislation on Thursday that they’ve previously put forward.

But it’s coming as the White House is also backing the establishment of the clean electricity standard, albeit a significantly more ambitious one.

The McKinley-Schrader proposal would first require companies to start coming under compliance either 10 years after the legislation is enacted or two years after certain technologies are available and affordable.

Their bill also separately aims to bolster renewables through research and cost reduction programs and tax credits and bolster nuclear through credits and tax incentives.

It could face House hurdles, however, as a group of Democratic leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this year separately proposed their own clean electricity standard that’s in line with Biden’s goal.