Can President Biden Get The Clean Energy Standard Across The Goal Line?
To be sure, not everyone agrees that the federal government should mandate the use of more renewables. The R Street Institute, which calls the transition “urgent,” thinks that the Clean Energy Standard creates an “artificial demand” for sustainable fuels. According to David Hartman, the director of energy and environmental policy, the focus should be on emissions reductions while the cost of health and environmental risks should be priced in.
“It’s important to be more inclusive — to create a broader set of environmental implications,” he told the OurEnergyPolicy audience. If smartly done, carbon pricing could be a better way to cut CO2 and to address externalities — a tax that would either be used to offset the energy costs incurred by lower-income customers or be invested in new technologies. A lot of experts say that such a tax is the most effective way to measure carbon emissions, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who wrote that it is the “textbook solution.”
