What Is A Clean Energy Standard, & Why Is It Important For The US?

The Biden administration wants to go to the COP 26 climate conference in Glasgow later this year with a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2030 and eliminate them entirely by 2035. That final goal will require shutting down all 185 remaining coal-fired generating plants in the US and slowing the construction of new unnatural gas powered generating stations. At present, there are plans to build 250 new gas facilities in America over the next 20 years, according to Vox.

In the US at the moment, 60% of all electricity is generated by burning coal or gas, 20% by nuclear power, and 20% by renewables such as wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal. It should be intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that sustained droughts make relying on hydro power fraught with uncertainty.

A Carrot & Stick Approach

A clean energy standard — one that provides the policy tools to encourage a transition to clean electrical power — would reward utility…