Peach Tree Times

Democrats hope that their continued efforts to compromise on the clean energy aspects of President Biden’s Build Back Better package will eventually pay off with the bill's passage.

The objective is to reduce and eventually eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector with the proposed $150 billion payment program rewarding the production of clean power — like solar, hydroelectric and wind —while reprimanding companies not pursuing clean energy, Reuters said.  

Reuters reports that the mission is a 4% increase in the production of “clean” electricity that produces a maximum of one-tenth of a metric ton of carbon dioxide per megawatt. A failure to meet that goal could result in a $40 penalty per megawatt hour per month.

Tim Echols, commissioner of the Georgia Public Service Commission, detailed why Georgia does not need a "Green New Deal" in an opinion piece. 

Echols said that the state's electricity prices were 15% below the national average at the time of publishing, which he says is "good for both consumers and businesses." He said that he had reservations about eliminating  nuclear energy as part of the bill. Nuclear plants as recently as 2018 accounted for 56 percent of emission-free electricity.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who hails from the coal-reliant state of West Virginia, has been staunchly opposed to punishing fossil fuel production, Canary Media said.

The Build Back Better program’s energy section calls for direct payment of subsidies provided by the federal government, along with an $8 billion loan and grant program that would fund the integration of clean energy into the grid and $13.5 billion to develop a national network of EV charging stations and the manufacturing of electric heavy duty vehicles, Canary Media reported.

Pittsburgh Works examined the impact of clean energy on consumers and found that electricity prices in states that had adopted the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative surged because joining the organization resulted in penalties being applied for every ton of carbon that was produced using fossil fuels. Their study found that the Green New Deal could have a similar effect.  

The Biden Administration's projected budget for fiscal year 2022 estimated government spending would come in nearly $2 trillion more than what would be collected in taxes, according to Pittsburgh Works.

Antony Davies, distinguished fellow for the Foundation for Economic Education and associate professor of economics at Duquesne University, recently told the Peach Tree Times that this level of spending is harmful to the consumer by raising prices.

"To finance these deficits, the government is increasingly relying on loans from the Federal Reserve," Davies said. "When the Federal Reserve loans to the government, the money supply increases, and that puts upward pressure on prices."

An increase in prices will affect almost all households, as energy costs nationwide spiked 24.8% over the past year.

The Build Back Better outline would shrink real income for households by $12,000 over the next decade, Vance Ginn of the Texas Public Policy Foundation told Houston Daily.

Philip Rossetti, former director of energy policy at the American Action Forum, published a column that detailed what it would cost to go 100% renewable.

Rossetti estimated that it would cost $423.9 billion yearly, a prognostication that Rossetti found using “extremely favorable assumptions.” Rossetti said that  the unreliability of renewable energy in “solar power only produces its stated capacity roughly 25.7% of the day (its “capacity factor”). Wind power on average only provides power for 34.6% of the day.”