Making sense of the clean energy legislative solutions

The briefing discusses the need for a diverse set of clean energy resources to ensure reliability and affordability while meeting carbon neutrality goals. It examines different legislative mechanisms—such as clean energy standards, financial incentive programs, and tax credits—and proposes key design criteria including technology neutrality, sufficient incentives for early-stage technologies, the removal of participation barriers, and community benefit.

• To achieve climate goals and maintain a functioning economy, the energy system requires clean energy resources capable of providing power continuously across all seasons, as well as solutions for sectors currently lacking commercial options, specifically heavy industry and long-haul freight transportation.
• Current US legislative proposals for clean energy follow three primary models: regulatory mandates like the Clean Electricity Standard in the CLEAN Future Act, financial incentive/disincentive systems such as the Clean Electricity Payment Program (CEPP) in the Build Back Better Act, and enhancements to existing tax credits like the Energy Sector Innovation Credit (ESIC) Act.
• A well-designed clean energy policy should be technology-neutral, supporting not only commercial technologies but also advanced nuclear energy, clean hydrogen, carbon capture utilization and storage, and super hot rock geothermal, while providing incentives to prevent the premature retirement of existing at-risk nuclear plants.
• Effective policy design must provide bankable incentives tailored to the development stage of the technology—with higher per-kilowatt hour incentives for earlier-stage tech—and include direct payment options for tax credits to ensure the full value is available regardless of the applicant's tax obligation.

APA

tshaheen (2021). Making sense of the clean energy legislative solutions. Clean Air Task Force. https://www.catf.us/2021/10/making-sense-of-the-clean-energy-legislative-solutions/

Chicago

tshaheen. Making sense of the clean energy legislative solutions. Clean Air Task Force, 2021. https://www.catf.us/2021/10/making-sense-of-the-clean-energy-legislative-solutions/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=tshaheen |title=Making sense of the clean energy legislative solutions |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=4 October 2021 |url=https://www.catf.us/2021/10/making-sense-of-the-clean-energy-legislative-solutions/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{tshaheen2021making, author = {tshaheen}, title = {{Making sense of the clean energy legislative solutions}}, institution = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2021}, month = oct, url = {https://www.catf.us/2021/10/making-sense-of-the-clean-energy-legislative-solutions/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }