The US House’s Clean Future Act is loaded with pro-EV policies

The US House of Representatives is currently considering the CLEAN Future Act, “a comprehensive and ambitious plan to ensure the United States acts aggressively to tackle the climate crisis in the 2020s and achieves net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution by no later than 2050.”

The targets, which include a 50% reduction in GHG emissions from 2005 levels by no later than 2030, come from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The bill presents a sweeping set of both sector-specific and economy-wide policy proposals.

There are sections on Power, Efficiency, Industry, Environmental Justice, Waste Reduction and Worker and Community Transition, which introduces programs to address the needs of workers negatively affected by the transition to a clean-energy economy.

The Transportation section (Title IV) authorizes more than $100 billion over the next decade to electrify the US transportation system, which is currently the largest source of climate-altering pollution in the country. EV-related measures include:

• $500 million in funding to deploy EVSE
• Development of model building codes for EVSE integration
• A program to determine where EVSE will be needed to meet demand
• An assessment to explore the deployment of EVSE in underserved or disadvantaged communities
• Funding for State Energy Conservation Plans and State Energy Transportation Plans
• $2.5 billion annually for zero-emission school buses
• $2 billion annually to reduce air pollution at ports by decarbonizing and electrifying port infrastructure and operations
• An increase in funding to $500 million annually for the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) program
• A new set of emissions standards for GHG emissions from nonroad sources, including locomotives and aircraft
• Reauthorizing DOE financing programs to boost domestic manufacturing of advanced vehicles and components
• $10 million for a pilot program to electrify diesel-powered transport refrigeration units used to deliver perishable goods and medications
• $375 million for the Clean Cities Coalition Program

“The climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges of our lifetime, but it also presents one of the greatest opportunities to empower American workers with new, good-paying jobs and return our economy to a position of strength after a long, dark year of historic job losses and pain,” said Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ). “This legislation will create millions of homegrown jobs in a climate-resilient economy, ensuring our workers and businesses can compete in the 21st-century transition to clean technology that’s already happening.”

“Through policies that will create millions of new, good paying jobs and reduce pollution in historically overburdened communities, this legislation drives our country further down the path toward a much-needed clean energy transition—and does so with equity and social justice at its center,” said Energy Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Rush (D-IL).

Source: House Committee on Energy & Commerce, CleanTechnica