Lawmakers lay out arguments for boosting clean energy through infrastructure

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said Wednesday that Congress needs to take steps to bolster developments in the clean energy sector, as infrastructure bills move closer to the finish line on Capitol Hill.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said “we have to be bolder and be more transformative” in order to keep pace with other countries on the energy front.

“There is no question that China in particular, over the last decade, really moved in a bold way,” Wyden said at The Hill’s “The Road to Zero-Emissions Trucks: Fleets & Shippers” event.

Sen. @RonWyden on the US being behind other countries in promoting renewable energy: “we have to be bolder and be more transformative with policies” #TheHillETrucks https://t.co/hurlayrcR7 pic.twitter.com/qMvlIgT5ha

— The Hill Events (@TheHillEvents) September 15, 2021

Wyden told The Hill’s Steve Clemons that the Finance Committee is aiming to improve the 44 tax incentives currently in place for the energy industry.

“Instead of those 44, we said, ‘Let’s have one for clean energy, one for clean transportation and one for energy efficiency.’ ”

Wyden said that the committee has worked “very closely” with the White House on infrastructure and that there is an “opportunity to come together, to lock in the lodestar that says that you’re going to be tech-neutral, market-oriented.”

Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), who also spoke at Wednesday’s event sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund, said the Democratic-only infrastructure bill being crafted by House committees should find other ways to boost clean energy.

“Instead of being focused on ‘I want everything to be solar or everything to be wind’, what we need to be focused on is a clean energy future,” said Graves, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

.@RepGarretGraves: “What we need to be focused on is a clean energy future. If we can base a clean energy future on the resources that are in the United States, versus those that are in China…that’s a win-win for the United States” #TheHillETrucks https://t.co/hurlayrcR7 pic.twitter.com/rCdzqMUrwD

— The Hill Events (@TheHillEvents) September 15, 2021

The Louisiana Republican spoke about the community struggles across his state in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, while noting that the levees built after Hurricane Katrina saved “billions of extra dollars in damages” and prevented “countless lives that would have been lost.”

He said if such spending had been in place before Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, “we probably could have saved well over $100 billion by investing somewhere around $8 billion on the front end.”

Congressional Democrats are pushing forward with their $3.5 trillion spending bill that’s packed with party priorities such as climate change, education and health care. The House is slated to vote by Sept. 27 on a separate infrastructure bill — the Senate-passed $1.2 trillion bipartisan measure — that focuses more on spending for roads and bridges.