The
GOP-led Congress rushed to help the Obama administration meet U.S. commitments
under the Paris climate deal.
As lawmakers scurried to keep the government open and head home
for the holidays, they wrapped spending and tax deals into a costly measure
that highlighted our nation’s mismatched energy policies.
Specifically, this monster bill extended and
restored tax incentives for wind and solar power while lifting a ban on crude
oil exports that began during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.
On the one hand, the private sector can keep generating a
growing share of the nation’s electricity from renewable, free, and
non-polluting resources. On the other hand, some oil that might have stayed in
the ground just became more likely to be extracted and burned.
As more homeowners, drivers, industries, and utilities draw
their power from the sun and the wind, catastrophic climate change will become
less likely.
And the long-term climate benefits of boosting wind and solar
power for five more years will outweigh the potential climate pollution from
allowing crude exports, Council on Foreign Relations energy expert Michael Levi predicts.
Currently, oil prices are so depressed due to a global glut that
there’s little demand elsewhere for U.S. crude. If oil markets bounce back, the
long-term climate consequences of this largely symbolic victory for Big Oil
will probably be small.
Stretching renewable-energy credits out for another five years,
however, will deliver major relief to the wind industry. The Production Tax Credit, its primary source of federal support, had been in
limbo for most of the past two years.
Then there’s the solar energy Investment Tax Credit. Without the
new tax deal, it would have expired at the end of 2016. Now it’s assured
through 2022.
Wait. Many Republican lawmakers scoff at the notion of climate
action and are trying to sabotage President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan.
Why would they buttress renewable energy right after the Paris deal?
There are plenty of reasons.
Take job creation. The solar industry alone already employs
200,000 workers and anticipates bringing another 140,000 on board because of
the tax credit’s extension. It also goes out of its way to hire veterans and
plans on hiring 50,000 of them by 2020.
“These jobs are stable, well-paying, and cannot be exported
overseas,” observed Solar Energy Industries Association CEO and President Rhone
Resch.
There’s also the shockingly good results of government support
for these industries through the tax code, which in recent years has coincided
with technological breakthroughs that are now slashing costs for turbines and
solar panels.
Over the first three quarters of 2015, wind and solar energy
constituted more than 60 percent of the nation’s new energy capacity. The United States is undergoing a renewable energy boom
that’s leaving coal and nuclear power in the dust and
overshadowing what until recently appeared to be unstoppable growth for
natural gas-fired power stations.
Then, there’s vigorous public support for wind and solar energy, which is nearly as
strong among Republicans as Democrats.
While letting solar tax credits lapse wouldn’t have
short-circuited that part of the renewable boom outright, Rhone’s solar trade
group predicted that it would have slowed things down, including the
pace of job and investment growth.
Likewise, the wind industry — despite boasting about $20 billion worth of wind farms now
under construction — feared falling off an “economic cliff” had Congress failed
to restore the Production Tax Credit for multiple years.
Now the forecast for renewable energy looks sunny and bright,
thanks to this green and dirty gift from Congress.
Columnist
Emily Schwartz Greco is the managing editor of OtherWords, a non-profit
national editorial service run by the Institute for Policy Studies. OtherWords.org.