Heavy lifting on slashing emissions—now and later

Executive Editor
Source: Rhodium Group

President Biden’s pledge to the Paris Climate Agreement to cut America’s emissions in half by 2030 could be met largely by reductions in the electricity sector, according to a report by the research firm Rhodium Group released Tuesday.

The report underscores two things: 1) The importance of cleaning up the electricity sector today with zero-emission sources such as wind, solar and nuclear power; and 2) the need to invest in technologies today that can clean up other sectors later to meet Biden’s 2050 goal of net-zero emissions.

The policies the group analyzed includes most of the provisions in the Senate-passed infrastructure bill and the budget reconciliation package under debate now, along with federal regulations, state policies and private company commitments (check out page 13-15 for the whole list).

Importantly though, the analysis doesn’t include provisions whose inclusion in final law is particularly uncertain, including the Clean Electricity Performance Program or a direct price on any emissions.