117th Congress Kickstarts Discussions to Spur Federal Climate Action

President Biden’s reentry into the Paris Agreement on his first day in office reignited debate on Capitol Hill about America’s role in leading the global clean energy transition. As greenhouse gas emissions and average global temperatures continue to rise, policymakers in the United States and abroad have sought solutions to reduce emissions and mitigate the intensifying climate emergency. Concerns about a weakened clean energy workforce and heightened awareness of environmental injustice are also beginning to receive attention from legislators, who are grappling with the monumental task of recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic by rebuilding and growing the economy.

The new Congress kickstarted discussions to spur federal climate action with two hearings in early February—among the first hearings held in the 117th Congress. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing to examine global trends and progress in addressing climate change. Senators sought to address various issues, including the benefits and costs of investing in renewable energy technologies, ways the federal government can support and expand the workforce while decarbonizing the U.S. economy, and the role of industrializing countries like China and India in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. Several speakers referenced the Energy Act of 2020, which was enacted in December of 2020, including Committee Chairman Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Ranking Member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), signaling that climate change solutions will require ambitious, bipartisan policies.

Over in the House, the Energy and Commerce Committee explored how multifaceted federal policies can support energy industries, promote American workforce opportunities, and drive decarbonization. In January 2020, the Committee released a draft legislative text for the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s Future Act (CLEAN Future Act) to engage all sectors of the economy in reducing emissions. Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) stated that Congress can play an essential role in enacting legal protections for overburdened communities. Speakers discussed how Congress can further build upon the CLEAN Future Act to enact meaningful federal climate policy.

Powering a Federal Clean Energy Transition, Creating Workforce Opportunities

Both committees focused on the need to protect and expand the national workforce in federal clean energy transition strategies. In their opening remarks, both committee chairs sought to honor the concerns of communities that fear adverse economic impacts from energy transition efforts. They vowed to put workers at the heart of the clean energy transition and were optimistic about the creation of renewable energy jobs. In response, Senator Barrasso and Representative David McKinley (R-W.Va) raised concerns about the loss of thousands of well-paying U.S. jobs during the energy transition, particularly in coal communities they represent. The need to retain and augment a robust workforce and domestic economy in decarbonization strategies were echoed throughout both hearings.

The discussion around workforce opportunities in the Senate committee hearing was largely informed by conversations on the decreasing costs of wind and solar energy. Dr. Richard Newell, President and CEO of Resources for the Future, noted a 70 percent drop in the levelized cost (i.e., lifetime cost of energy infrastructure divided by energy production) of wind energy and a 90 percent drop of solar since 2009. Attributable to innovation in the renewable energy space as well as economies of scale, these substantial cost reductions have resulted in competition between renewable sources and natural gas—currently the main source of electricity in the United States. Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, cited market projections that indicate a clear preference for renewable energy, specifically solar, which he believes will be the “new king of global electricity markets.” In order for this scenario to materialize, Birol suggested governments must change their policies and provide new incentives for solar. Policy incentives like federal subsidies for renewable energy production would further drive down the levelized costs of wind and solar, according to Dr. Newell. A drop in renewable prices coupled with an increase in demand would create more job opportunities in the sector.

During the House hearing, speakers emphasized that Congressional action can simultaneously address the climate crisis while driving economic recovery. Hearing witness Christy Goldfuss, Senior Vice President of Energy and Environmental Policy at the Center for American Progress, commented that work during the 116th Congress, including the release of the draft CLEAN Future Act, the introduction of the 100% Clean Economy Act (H.R.5221), and the release of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis Report, “set the stage for swift and long-lasting climate action that matches the scale and scope of the challenges we face.”  

Goldfuss called on Congress to make large-scale climate and power sector investments that would not only reduce emissions, but also act as a tool to create workforce opportunities, deploy renewable technologies to drive the transition to a clean future, and support environmental justice programs in overburdened communities. She emphasized that tax credits and for wind and solar projects are tools that can have significant impacts on renewable energy costs. Expanding these tax credits can help support the growth of and other forms of renewable energy as well as wind and solar.

Multiple hearing witnesses highlighted the importance of supporting a just and equitable clean energy transition through workforce opportunities. House hearing witness Kerene Tayloe, Director of Federal Legislative Affairs at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, stated that Congress can play an integral role to “encourage and expedite the transition to good-paying green energy jobs.” To this end, Congress can support bills like the Blue Collar to Green Collar Jobs Development Act (H.R.1315), most recently introduced during the 116th Congress, which would reauthorize and expand the Department of Energy’s Office of Minority Economic Impact to improve workforce education and training opportunities for underrepresented groups in energy-related industries, including manufacturing, engineering, construction, and retrofitting jobs.

Programs like the Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program, the Weatherization Assistance Program, and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program all spur investment that reduce emissions and provide additional cost savings and resilience benefits to households and communities. According to Goldfuss, “It is this same whole-of-Congress approach put forth in the bills that will be needed to drive immediate economic and social recovery and justice while also meeting the scale of the current climate crisis.”

Advancing Just and Equitable Federal Climate Legislation

House hearing witnesses emphasized the importance of federal funds supporting low-income communities and communities of color historically and disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis. The Biden Administration passed an executive order to create the Justice40 Initiative, which commits 40 percent of climate-related federal investments to frontline and disadvantaged communities. Goldfuss commented that Congress can further build upon this initiative by investing in climate action that promotes equity, such as supporting brownfield redevelopment and Superfund cleanup programs that would reduce pollution, improve public health, and create jobs.

Tayloe emphasized the importance of working with environmental justice organizations to help determine what Justice40 investments should look like in communities, whether it be increasing access to workforce training opportunities or supporting air monitoring initiatives in communities impacted by pollution.  To further strengthen the effect of the Justice40 Initiative, Tayloe recommended codifying the executive order and ensuring that federal agencies beyond the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) incorporate environmental justice into their work. Moving forward, Tayloe outlined additional proposals that would advance equity and environmental justice goals, including bills from the 116^th Congress like the Environmental Justice for All Act (H.R.5986) and the Environmental Justice Legacy Pollution Cleanup Act (H.R.8271). 

Integrating Global Perspectives Into Climate Policy

Throughout the Senate hearing, witnesses and legislators considered U.S. competitiveness in international energy markets and the nation’s emission trends relative to other countries. As witnesses noted, climate change is an energy challenge: 83 percent of global emissions are attributable to the production and use of energy. According to Dr. Birol, China has led worldwide emissions for the last 15 years, and currently accounts for 30 percent of global emissions. The United States, having long been the greatest emitter, currently contributes about 14 percent of global emissions. However, Dr. Birol emphasized that the United States continues to lead the world average for per capita emissions, at a rate that is more than double that of China.

In her testimony, Dr. Angel Hsu, an expert on Chinese emissions trends, mentioned that China generates 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources and tops global renewables investments at $100 billion per year. Although the nation is criticized for being the world’s largest emitter, according to Dr. Hsu, China is taking significant steps towards carbon neutrality. The country’s commitment to the Paris Agreement, codified in its five-year plan, makes it likely to achieve that goal by 2060. By way of comparison, global emissions will need to drop by seven percent per year until reaching net zero in order to meet the global target of carbon neutrality by 2050.

Most hearing witnesses expressed optimism that the United States can become a global leader in the creation of new renewable energy and storage technologies. Nonetheless, pushback against transitioning America’s energy generation to renewables punctuated foreign policy discussions in the Senate hearing. From an economic standpoint, according to Mark Mills, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a transition from natural gas and fossil fuels to renewable sources would result in the United States becoming a net energy importer, as it currently imports the majority of its wind, solar, and battery machines and the natural resources needed to produce these technologies. Dr. Birol brought attention to this situation as well, stating that 70 percent of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems currently come from Asia.

Should the United States transition to producing more of these technologies domestically, Mills predicts a tenfold increase in the quantity of solid materials—such as nickel, cadmium, and rare earth metals—mined to develop renewable and storage technologies. This could also result in novel environmental costs, both in terms of extracting new resources as well as channeling the production of natural gas and fossil fuels to foreign countries, which typically have fewer environmental regulations than in the United States. Senator Angus King (D-Maine) responded to these remarks with a reminder that the costs of not transitioning could far outweigh those of transitioning, and underscored that the United States can transform the market by leading the energy transition.

Both the Senate and House hearings set the stage for ambitious yet realistic, bipartisan climate policy that centers workers at the heart of economic recovery. Speakers emphasized the importance of setting forth legislation that prioritizes American workforce opportunities, focuses on incorporating environmental justice principles into federal policy, and generates large-scale investments in deploying renewable energy technology. By taking the lead to support such legislation, the 117th Congress can support the Biden-Harris Administration's early steps to take the action needed to address the scale of the climate and economic crises the country faces.

Authors: Celine Yang and Hamzah Jhaveri