Wyden Unveils Clean Energy For America Act

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today announced legislation to measurably reduce carbon pollution over the next decade through a series of incentives for clean energy and the promotion of new technologies in the private sector. Wyden’s Clean Energy for America Act includes technology-neutral tax credits for domestic production of clean electricity and clean transportation fuel, as well as performance-based tax incentives for energy-efficient homes and office buildings. These credits are open to all resources, including fossil fuels that capture carbon or make efficiency improvements.

Wyden is the senior Democratic member on the Senate Finance Committee and member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, making him uniquely positioned to find new incentives to cut carbon pollution while creating millions of jobs in the clean energy sector.

“This bill is built around the proposition that the law ought to reward innovative energy technologies with incentives that spark investment in the private economy,” Wyden said. “These investments will shrink electric bills for American families and create new clean energy jobs in Oregon and across the country.”

The current system of energy incentives in the tax code is overly complex and far less effective than it should be. Today, there are 44 different energy tax incentives. More than half are too short-term to effectively stimulate investments, while also providing different subsidies to different technologies with no clear policy direction. By contrast, Wyden’s bill proposes a dramatically simpler set of long-term, performance-based energy tax incentives that are technology-neutral and promote clean energy production and storage in the United States.

Cosponsors of the Clean Energy for America Act include Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., along with Senate Finance Committee members Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Tom Carper, D-Del., Ben Cardin, D-Md., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Senators Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Chris Coons, D-Del., Brian Schatz, D-HI, Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Angus King, I-Maine, Tim Kaine, D-Va., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev..

Legislative text can be found here. A one-page summary of the bill can be found here and a longer summary of the bill can be found here.

Next Article Previous Article