{"id":21422,"date":"2021-06-10T15:08:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T20:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=21422"},"modified":"2025-12-03T12:34:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T17:34:33","slug":"the-key-to-reaching-bidens-new-climate-goal-an-enforceable-clean-electricity-standard-that-slashes-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2021\/06\/10\/the-key-to-reaching-bidens-new-climate-goal-an-enforceable-clean-electricity-standard-that-slashes-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"The key to reaching Biden\u2019s new climate goal: An enforceable clean electricity standard that slashes pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: This post was last updated June 29, 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n

At the Leaders Summit on Climate in April, President Biden pledged<\/a> to go all-in to beat the climate crisis, setting an ambitious and credible target to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 50-52% below 2005 levels by 2030. Now the administration and federal law makers must roll up their sleeves and work to achieve this target.\u00a0The question is: What policies will they adopt that can secure the necessary cuts in pollution in less than 10 years?<\/p>\n

While there are multiple pathways to meeting the target, a wide range of analyses agree on one core theme: The power sector is a critical linchpin to success. We need to cut emissions from electricity generation by at least 80% below 2005 levels by 2030.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To meet this emissions challenge, federal lawmakers must deliver strong policy that swiftly brings more clean energy sources online while creating new, good-paying jobs and slashing air pollution in the process. Advocates<\/a>, power companies and the public<\/a> are already demanding ambitious action in the power sector. Therefore, a national policy that ensures deep cuts in pollution from the power sector is the most important step we can take to put the country on the path to a safer climate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Crunching the numbers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Before President Biden\u2019s announcement of the new U.S. emissions target for 2030, multiple independent analyses scoped out the path to a bold U.S. Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), from a range of groups including Environmental Defense Fund<\/a>, Natural Resources Defense Council<\/a>, America is All In, the University of Maryland<\/a> and others. Despite using different policy assumptions, they all found that cutting power sector emissions around 80% below 2005 levels by 2030 is an essential step toward reaching the overall target. <\/strong>In fact, reductions in power plant pollution will have to deliver the majority<\/em> of the reductions necessary to achieve the NDC, as shown below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This level of ambition is not only key for cutting emissions from power sector and ultimately reaching President Biden\u2019s promise to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035.\u00a0 It is the<\/em> key that unlocks reductions in other sectors like transportation, buildings and industry<\/strong> by allowing these sectors to increasingly rely on clean electricity instead of burning fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

An enforceable standard that locks in pollution cuts is critical<\/strong><\/h3>\n

While emissions are likely to continue to fall as wind and solar power become even more cost-competitive, the power sector will still fall well short of the reductions that are needed without policies that further accelerate progress and lock in the needed reductions.<\/p>\n

President Biden\u2019s American Jobs Plan includes a number of important proposals to ramp up clean energy, including incentives like long-term extension of renewable tax incentives and new tax credits for storage and transmission. These proposals are essential building-blocks and will help grow the amount of clean energy on the grid and spark job creation. However, the essential policy to guarantee the needed 80% reduction from the power sector is a clean electricity standard (CES) that 1) focuses on cutting pollution and 2) includes an enforceable standard with a mechanism to ensure compliance.<\/p>\n

1. A CES should be designed to deliver what matters: cuts in pollution. <\/strong>A CES crafted solely to achieve a percentage of carbon-free energy sources, without incorporating emissions performance into the design, will not guarantee that pollution goals are hit. In fact, depending on how quickly demand grows in the electric sector, how \u201cclean energy\u201d is defined, and how assumptions about technology costs play out over the decade, the emissions outcomes from such a policy could vary significantly <\/em>and deliver results well below expectations. Any CES should be designed to achieve the metric that matters for the climate crisis: quantifiable and definite reductions in carbon pollution.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2. To guarantee that 80% cut in carbon pollution, a CES must be designed to include a strong compliance obligation:<\/strong> a binding requirement placed on the companies that either generate or deliver electricity. This is critical because compliance rates are much lower when enforcement is not tightly woven into policy design.<\/p>\n

One of the best examples of smart power sector policy design that included these key enforcement elements is EPA\u2019s Acid Rain Program. The program had a strong compliance obligation \u2013 a limit on sulfur-dioxide pollution from coal-fired power plants that was enforced by requiring each facility to report its SO2 emissions and hold a permit for every ton of pollution emitted. A few key features made the program a success: it was simple (one ton of SO2 pollution = one permit), it was transparent (there was a centralized tracking system which ensured everyone had the same data, increasing confidence in the outcomes), and enforcement was built in (with automatic penalties that far outstripped the cost of compliance). The result? With strictly limited permits available, pollution reduction goals were met on time and the program achieved over 99% compliance with little additional enforcement. The success of this program shows just how much there is to gain from ensuring thoughtful CES compliance design.<\/p>\n

And of course, a focus on carbon pollution and enforceability are not the only critical pieces of a CES. There are other crucial goals that can — and should be — incorporated in a CES, including:<\/p>\n