by Dean Scott (Bloomberg Environment) Senate Democrats home in on strategy for raising clean energy tax credits, highway bill reauthorization; Parallel effort on making infrastructure better resilient to climate change — … They are likely to score their biggest victories in two must-pass bills in the 116th Congress: a tax “extenders” package, in which they hope to negotiate broaden credits to offshore wind and battery storage, and the next highway bill, where Democrats will push low-emissions transportation technologies and ways to make the nation’s transportation network more resilient to climate change.
Tax extenders refer to the tax credits that lawmakers have to renew every few years.
A prospective tax extender package or a highway bill are a long way from being signed into law—the highway bill, for one, need require reauthorization until September 2020—but the climate issue hovers over both.
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Tax extenders include many with broad bipartisan support and some—such as for biodiesel and short-line rail maintenance by railroad companies—that have expired.
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Senate Democrats say their price for moving tax extenders could include expanding clean energy tax credits to offshore wind and energy storage, including battery technologies, and tweaks in the existing credits for electric vehicles.
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“And clearly, on an infrastructure bill or a highway bill, whatever happens there is going to be enormous opportunities not only for dealing with things like EV charging infrastructure, but also for dealing with responding to climate change, like worrying about Amtrak along the sea coast in places that are going to be overwhelmed by sea-level rise,” Whitehouse said.
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Senate Democrats are hoping the launch of their new select committee will broaden their message to Democrats who aren’t on the forefront of pushing the issue in Barrasso’s environment committee or the Senate energy committee.
They include Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a Senate Armed Services Committee member who has backed shoring up military installations threatened by sea-level rise, as well Defense Department investments in biofuel technologies. READ MORE
TOUGH TALK FOR GAS TAX ADVOCATES: (Poltico’s Morning Energy)
BARRASSO SHOOTS DOWN GAS TAX TALK: (Poltico’s Morning Energy)
Excerpt from Politico’s Morning Energy: TOUGH TALK FOR GAS TAX ADVOCATES: As talks begin on funding for the surface transportation bill that advanced from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Tuesday, it’s unlikely Republicans will rely on a gas tax increase, Pro’s Tanya Snyder and Anthony Adragna report . “I have heard over the course of four, five years that [Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell didn’t want the gas tax increase because he doesn’t want Republicans to be accused of raising taxes,” said Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley, who met with EPW Chairman John Barrasso on Tuesday on pay-fors. “So that seems to me a big hurdle for my committee to overcome.” READ MORE
Excerpt from Politico’s Morning Energy: BARRASSO SHOOTS DOWN GAS TAX TALK: Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Wednesday his talks with Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to fund the five-year surface transportation bill that EPW advanced this week have not touched on a possible gas tax hike, Pro’s Tanya Snyder reports. “That’s not something that I’ve ever been promoting,” Barrasso said. “I’m not a fan of it.”
Instead, the Wyoming Republican said the pair is exploring “a number” of options “and the staffs are going to work together over August and come up with the ones that they feel are most viable.” READ MORE
