Can the US Reach Biden's Climate Goal Without the CEPP?
David Robert's Volts newsletter cites RFF research about the effect of reconciliation policies, particularly a carbon fee, on power-sector emissions.
Resources For the Future agrees but says a carbon fee could make up for it
Energy Innovations’ findings jibe with the second analysis, from Resources for the Future (RFF). RFF modeled three policies, in various combinations:
- the clean-energy tax credits, which it calls CEAA for the “Clean Energy for America Act,” a bill from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) that is largely included in the BBB Act;
- the Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP); and
- a carbon tax (er, fee) — the “central” carbon fee “starts at 15 $/metric ton and increases gradually to 30 $/metric ton by 2028, followed by a $10 annual increase through the end of the modeling period (2045).”
The CEAA tax credits alone, without the CEPP, gets the electricity sector to a 69 percent clean energy share by 2030. That is roughly in line with Energy Innovations’ high-end estimation of the tax credits’ impact.
