CLEAN Future Act would slash emissions, create national energy standard Leaders from the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce introduced the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s (CLEAN) Future Act. The legislation aims to decarbonize the country and establish a national 100% clean electricity standard (CES), among other proposals. The legislation would authorize $565 billion over 10 years to achieve its goals. The bill sponsors said the legislation includes “significant updates” to a draft released in January 2020, reflecting comments from stakeholders, expert testimony received in committee hearings, and the enactment of several previous provisions into law through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.
Biden’s energy department revives loan program to boost clean technology As part of its clean-energy agenda, the Biden administration is reviving an energy department program that disbursed billions of dollars in loan guarantees to companies such as electric car maker Tesla and the failed solar company Solyndra, the energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, says. The loan program helped launch the country’s first utility-scale wind and solar farms as part of the Obama administration’s efforts to create “green jobs” but largely went dormant under Donald Trump. How Deb Haaland's confirmation bid became a 'proxy fight' over fossil fuels The program boosted Tesla’s efforts to become a behemoth in electric cars, but it stumbled with a major loan guarantee to Solyndra, the California solar company that failed soon after receiving federal money a decade ago, costing taxpayers more than $500m.