Dive Brief:
President Joe Biden s $1.52 trillion budget request for Fiscal Year 2022 includes a policy making standalone energy storage projects eligible for the federal investment tax credit (ITC), a move that advocates say will unleash new capital for renewable energy. The budget request also included new spending on storage as part of the administration s goal to decarbonize the energy sector by 2035.
Biden s $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, known as the American Jobs Plan, also included the storage ITC proposal along with $100 billion in power grid investments.
A Treasury Department report released last week stated that expanding tax incentives for storage would help put the country on a path to 100% clean electricity by 2035 and help ensure that the electricity supply is reliable as well as less harmful to the climate.
Tomlinson: Texas should boost clean energy innovation, not discourage investors
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Windmills on a windmill farm in North Texas on Thursday, May 21, 2020.Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less
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The flags fly at the Texas Capitol on Thursday, Jan. 7, 2020.Billy Calzada, Staff / Billy CalzadaShow MoreShow Less
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Santiago Huerta looks up at his worksite in North Texas on Thursday, May 21, 2020.Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographerShow MoreShow Less
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Wind turbines spin Tuesday, March 2, 2021 near Raymondville in the Rio Grande Valley in far south Texas.William Luther, Staff / William LutherShow MoreShow Less
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Fields of solar panels at OCI Solar Power s Alamo 1 Solar Farm are seen Sept. 23, 2020 as CPS Energy s coal-powered electric plant is seen in the background.William Luther, Staff / StaffShow MoreShow Less
Tomlinson: Texas should boost clean energy innovation, not discourage investors By Chris Tomlinson, Staff writer
Renewable energy met almost 40 percent of Texas’s electricity demand in March, and during some early morning hours this month, power was essentially free because the wind is blowing so hard, and demand was so low, according to grid data.
Texas has more installed wind and solar capacity than any other state in the nation, and most countries around the world. Our grid has been a global leader in clean energy for two decades.
This embarrassment of riches comes just weeks after the Texas Blackout left 4 million homes without power and led to more than 200 deaths. Some Texas politicians want to exploit that tragedy to kneecap the renewables industry in a move that would not improve reliability.
POLITICO
Down to the wire: Biden s green goals face a power grid reckoning
The U.S. will need new electric transmission lines to meet the president s aim of eliminating the power sector s net carbon pollution. But public opposition has doomed many such projects.
Additional electric transmission lines would allow different regions to share power in times of crisis. | Tim Boyle/Getty Images
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President Joe Biden s dream of a climate-friendly electric grid hangs on a slender wire: his administration s ability to speed the construction of thousands of miles of power lines.
But he’ll have to contend with a major obstacle: Americans who hate seeing these kinds of projects anywhere near their backyards. Power companies’ efforts to build long-range transmission lines have failed repeatedly in recent decades, mired in legal and political fights from Maine to Arkansas, because of opposition from states and communities along the projects paths.