1 / 4 -- Senate Republicans are readying a response to populist climate initiatives such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Green New Deal” with measures that they say adhere to their free-market principles and stand a better chance of becoming law.
The first of the Senate Republican bills, which could be introduced as early as Wednesday, seeks to reduce the cost of grid-scale energy storage -- a technology that could transform the wind and solar industries by allowing the resources to produce power around the clock. Most of the power they provide today is limited to when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.
“We have to be articulating the big picture solutions that are actually going to meet the scale of the climate crisis, but at the same time recognize that we are not in charge of the Senate floor right now,” said Senator Martin Heinrich, a Democrat from New Mexico, who is partnering with Collins on the energy storage bill. “When you can build bipartisan consensus around something that truly matters,” he added, “we need to every opportunity to do that.
Asked his thoughts on the effort, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer simply said: “Necessary, not sufficient.” But if the goal is to reduce emissions, “I think there is more than one way to do it and my preferred method is through innovation,” Texas Senator John Cornyn said in an interview. “This is basically trying to get out of the way and let the free enterprise system create the solution other than government regulation.”
New funding for clean energy technologies are also being eyed. Republican Senators Mitt Romney of Utah and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told Bloomberg they are crafting legislation that would create a new Clean Energy Investment Fund.