Clean Energy Deployment

Tax incentives for renewable energy projects would be restored and a low-income energy assistance program expanded under a draft bill House Democrats unveiled Wednesday. The blueprint aims to stem rising energy costs for Americans by doubling down on wind and solar energy, building out transmission lines to bolster the electricity grid, and curtailing the Trump administration’s ability to favor fossil fuel projects over renewables. Reps. Sean Casten (Ill.) and Mike Levin (Calif.) released the framework, which includes provisions from multiple Democratic bills, including from Reps. Kathy Castor (Fla.), Paul Tonko (N.Y.), Yassamin Ansari (Ariz.), Susie Lee (Nev.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.).

House Democrats introduced a new package of proposals on Wednesday taking aim at rising electricity prices. The move signals a shift in how the party plans to talk about the energy industry — and an even bigger change in how the party plans to talk about climate change in the Trump 2.0 era. The new package, sponsored by Representatives Sean Casten and Mike Levin, would encourage new power line construction and strengthen utility regulation in much of the country. It would also restore longstanding tax credits for wind and solar energy, which were repealed as part of President Trump’s partisan tax and spending law earlier this year.

A pair of House Democrats released "consumer-focused" energy legislation Wednesday that would restore recently gutted clean energy tax credits, relieve permitting bottlenecks and prevent a president's ability to favor fossil fuels. The "Cheap Energy Act," from Reps. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.), is broader than a transmission-focused permitting bill the pair released last year.