AFP
US President Joe Biden
The White House hopes to capitalize on growing support from United States utilities, unions and green groups for a national clean energy mandate by backing efforts to require the US grid to get 80 percent of its power from emissions-free sources by 2030, a senior administration official said.
A 2030 target would be a milestone on the way to achieving President Joe Biden’s stated ambition of net-zero carbon emissions in the grid by 2035.
“Our goal is to enact this into law,” deputy White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said, speaking of the administration’s push for a so-called clean energy standard to decarbonize the power sector. The latter would require reductions in emissions by adopting renewables, using nuclear energy or finding ways to suck up and sequester greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel plants.
“There are multiple pathways to get meaningful progress in the power sector,” Zaidi said. “We think this is a really powerful one in terms of giving utilities a clear and clean planning horizon.”
Requiring utilities to move away from coal and natural gas is a cornerstone of Biden’s plan to slash greenhouse gas emissions in half across the US economy in the next decade.