Congressional Democrats and President Appear to Reach Agreement on Budget Reconciliation Package – Providing Big Boost for Climate Change Programs
Late this week, it appeared that Congressional Democrats, the President and holdout Senators Sinema (D-AZ) and Manchin (D-WV) came to an agreement on key items in the budget reconciliation bill – called the Build Back Better plan by the Administration - being drafted by Congressional Democrats. While significantly scaled back from its original $3.5 trillion scope, the estimated $1.75 trillion package does provide an estimated $555 billion over 10 years to address climate change, including:

• $320 billion for clean energy tax credits
• $110 billion for clean energy investments and greening of supply chains
• $105 billion for pollution reduction and climate change programs
• $20 billion for federal purchase of more energy efficient equipment

Gone from the bill, largely at the insistence of Sen. Manchin, is the clean energy standard that would have required significant GHG reductions from US power plants.