The White House this morning released a fact sheet on “The American Jobs Plan,” also known as President Biden’s infrastructure plan. There’s a lot in here (as there should be for a couple of trillion dollars!), so today I’ll focus on energy infrastructure. Here are the highlights:
- $100B to “build a more resilient electric transmission system.” This includes “the creation of a targeted investment tax credit that incentivizes the buildout of at least 200 gigawatts of high-voltage capacity power lines.”
- Creation of a “Grid Deployment Authority” within DOE to facilitate transmission line siting.
- A “ten-year extension and phase down of an expanded direct-pay investment tax credit and production tax credit for clean energy generation and storage.”
- Implementation of an “Energy Efficiency and Clean Electricity Standard.” (If I knew what this really meant, I would tell you, but the fact sheet contains no details. Presumably it is a version of a federal renewable portfolio standard.)
- An unspecified amount of money for “15 decarbonized hydrogen demonstration projects in distressed communities.”
- $10B for a “Civilian Climate Corps.”
There’s much more to come. Even aside from more details on the energy infrastructure piece, there are important other sections of the Plan, including those on transportation infrastructure and drinking water infrastructure.
Stay tuned. We’ll see how much this administration can get done before the next election cycle begins, but there’s no doubt that President Biden has ambitious plans.
