U.S. Senator Joe Manchin has just rejected President Biden’s Build Back Better bill, which entailed $1.75 trillion of social spending, a large portion of which was intended for measures to fight climate change.
Biden’s wish for the bill was to help the United States reduce its carbon footprint by half this decade compared to 2005 levels. In addition, it aimed to completely decarbonize the power grid by 2035.
But now with Manchin’s rejection, meeting those climate goals may prove much more difficult.
The Build Back Better bill has outlined five main climate measures.
One is $300 billion worth of the clean energy tax credits to stimulate the production and purchase of low-carbon energy, including energy from renewables, such as wind and solar.
Relevant: Bill Introduced To Deny Carbon Credits For Oil Recovery
Many believe these provisions are very unlikely to become law if they are included in a stand-alone climate bill due to Manchin’s rejection.
Another section of the bill also allocated billions of dollars to extend the 45Q tax credits intended specifically for industrial plants to capture their CO2 emissions and store them deep underground or recycle them.
Despite his opposition to the Build Back Better bill, Senator Manchin is supportive of carbon capture and has, in fact, voiced an eagerness to make the 45Q tax credits easier to obtain.
Relevant: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Explains Why She Voted “No” On Infrastructure Bill
And to make sure of it, he has announced his support of the removal of the provision in the the version passed by the House of Build Back Better that had a minimum 75% carbon capture requirement level for factories to be able to qualify for the tax credits.
The other sections of the bills addressed methane emissions, the electrification of infrastructure and tax credits to electric vehicles.
