Making the Case for the Clean Energy Innovation and Deployment Act

By Diana DeGette and Ean Thomas Tafoya  

No one knows how or when this pandemic will end, but we do know that life will never be the same again. Instead of trying to return to the way things were, we need to use this opportunity to create a better path forward – one that puts the public’s health, and the health of our planet, first, above all else. 

For years, scientists around the world have been sounding the alarm, warning us about the threats we face from a changing climate. They have told us that to prevent the most severe consequences of the climate crisis, we must cut the amount of greenhouse gas the global economy emits into the atmosphere in half by 2030 and to net-zero by 2050.  

The U.S. is the world's second-largest emitter of carbon into the atmosphere and nearly one-fourth of our emissions from the production of electricity. To play our part in cutting the global economy’s greenhouse gas emissions, we must change the way we produce electricity in this country.  

New legislation introduced this month in Congress, known as the Clean Energy Innovation and Deployment Act (CEIDA), will create the nation’s first-ever federal clean energy standard that would require U.S. power companies to sharply reduce their harmful carbon emissions. 

If approved, CEIDA will immediately increase the use of existing clean energy technologies – such as wind, solar and hydropower – in the near term, while investing in new technologies needed to fully eliminate carbon emissions from our power sector as early as 2037, and no later than 2050. 

This legislation will create a 21st century energy system that will not only help to stave off the worst effects of the climate crisis, but also ensures that Americans have the affordable, reliable electricity they need.

What makes this legislation so unique is its flexible approach. Under the terms of the bill, U.S. power companies will be required to achieve net-zero emissions between 2037 and 2050, depending on the pace of technology innovation. And if a new breakthrough technology comes online before then that would allow us to produce reliable, emissions-free electricity, the bill will provide financial incentives to immediately deploy that new technology across the country.

This unique approach will not only help drive down our greenhouse gas emissions here in the U.S., it will also help drive down the cost of new clean-energy technologies that will allow other countries to quickly follow suit.  

Data for Progress polling shows that voters overwhelmingly support reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

In separate Data for Progress polling,they found most Americans support precisely the type of approach created under CEIDA, one in which the federal government sets a timeline for companies to deploy new clean-energy technologies, while offering them additional resources to help meet that goal.

That same poll also found that most Americans want to see more investments made to address the climate and environmental problems that many of our low-income communities face, which is something CEIDA will do as well.

Across the U.S., low-income families and families living on the margins are too often forced to live in close proximity to some of our largest sources of pollution, making it nearly impossible for these frontline communities to access the same clean air and water that many of us take for granted.

To make matters worse, many of these communities are now also having to bear the brunt of the coronavirus. With most of their workers unable to work from home, these communities are experiencing higher rates of infection and death compared to others. They are also experiencing more job losses and economic hardship. And many of them have nowhere near the same access to health care that more affluent communities in this country enjoy.

We can’t allow such inequity to continue.

CEIDA is designed to take on these systemic environmental, racial and economic injustices that are so deeply intertwined in our society. It will help drive down the pollution plaguing these communities and establish new apprenticeship and fellowship programs to train workers for the jobs of the modern energy economy that it will help build. 

It will create a new Climate Resiliency Corps, modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corps, to put people back to work helping their communities become more resilient to climate change. And it will create a new office at the U.S. Department of Energy to help find jobs for current fossil-fuel workers and new opportunities for the communities that have come to depend on these traditional sources of energy. 

This important legislation will ensure that deploying clean-energy technology will not only help us solve the climate crisis, it will also help put Americans back to work – especially women, veterans, and other marginalized community members who make our community strong.

We, as a nation, are confronting two truly unprecedented challenges – the ongoing spread of a deadly virus and the worsening climate crisis. We can’t afford to lose either battle, and we can’t let our efforts to fight one distract us from the other. 

Now is the time to take both challenges head on. And as we work to curb the spread of the coronavirus, let’s also enact the legislation needed to solve the climate crisis as well. 

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (@RepDianaDeGette) represents Colorado’s 1st Congressional District and is the author of the Clean Energy Innovation and Deployment Act. 

Ean Thomas Tafoya (@believeEan) is an environmental justice advocate from Denver.

From July 2 through July 3, 2020, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,303 likely voters nationally using web-panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is +/- 2.7 percentage points.

From May 13 through May 15, 2020, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1,212 likely voters nationally using web-panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is +/- 2.8 percentage points.