Biden meets with utility executives in push for spending agenda

President Biden on Wednesday met with utility CEOs to promote his stalled climate and social spending bill. 

“I think this is the beginning of a — God willing — a new era in the generation of electricity,” he said at the start of the meeting. 

According to the White House, executives from power providers including Duke Energy, DTE Energy and Exelon, as well as the president of the Edison Electric Institute trade group, were expected to be part of the meeting. 

In addition, members of the Biden administration including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, economic adviser Brian Deese and climate adviser Gina McCarthy were expected to be in attendance.  

During the meeting, Biden asked Patricia Vincent Collawn, the CEO of New Mexico power provider PNM Resources how the spending bill would help the state deliver reliable and affordable power. 

The executive said the bill would allow the utility to be carbon-free sooner, help it securitize and achieve a “just transition” to help retrain coal miners. 

Biden made the case that the legislation will boost affordability, reliability and job creation, while fighting climate change. 

“It’s about reducing family energy bills while protecting the grid from extreme weather and making power more reliable, and it’s also about jobs,” he said. 

“It’s going to make us more economically competitive, while reducing pollution and improving public health and helping us meet the moment on climate change.”

The White House only broadcast part of the meeting when Biden was present. 

Edison Electric Institute President Tom Kuhn in a statement on the meeting said the company met with the administration officials to talk about the industry’s “strong support for legislation that incorporates forward-thinking actions to address climate change, including a robust clean energy tax package that will deliver significant long-term benefits for electricity customers.”

Kuhn specifically said it would continue to support a tax credit for existing nuclear facilities, credits for hydrogen energy, as well as energy storage and transmission and the expansion of electric vehicle tax credits and infrastructure credits.

The currently stalled Build Back Better legislation includes tax credits that are expected to give a major boost to solar, wind and nuclear energy, as well as the use of technologies like storage, transmission and capturing the carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuel power generation. 

The future of the package is uncertain, as key swing vote Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has expressed opposition to it.

However, Manchin indicated recently that the bill’s climate portion could be one area of agreement, specifically saying he liked its clean energy tax credits. 

Late last month, Biden met with executives of big companies like General Motors and Microsoft to tout his spending agenda.