Letter to the Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representative, and the Hon. Kevin McCarthy, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives - Blumenauer Leads 180+ House Democrats in Urging Leadership to Prioritize Clean Energy Tax Incentives in Infrastructure Package

Letter

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As Congress advances legislation to rebuild and renew America's infrastructure, more than 180 members of the U.S. House of Representatives -- led by U.S. Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-CA), Jason Crow (D-CO), Mike Levin (D-CA), and A. Donald McEachin (D-VA) -- are today urging House leadership to include important clean energy, energy efficiency, and clean transportation tax incentives in the plan.

The lawmakers argue that these provisions will not only help the clean energy sector recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, but also play a key role in combating the climate crisis. In the face of the new report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change showing a "Code Red' in the climate fight, there is even greater urgency to enact clean energy incentives.

"These incentives will play a critical role in America's economic recovery, alleviate some of the pollution impacts that have been borne by disadvantaged communities, and help the country build back better and cleaner," wrote the House lawmakers in their letter today to Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer. "We look forward to working with you to include a stable, predictable, and long-term clean energy, energy efficiency, and clean transportation tax platform in the infrastructure package this year."

The letter comes as the Senate begins to consider a $3.5 trillion budget resolution with reconciliation instructions, paving the way for enactment of a stable, predictable, and long-term tax platform, with a direct pay option, that:

Provides long-term extensions and expansions to the Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit to meet President Biden's goal of a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035;
Extends and modernizes tax incentives for commercial and residential energy efficiency improvements and residential electrification;
Extends and modifies incentives for clean transportation options and alternative fuel infrastructure; and
Supports domestic clean energy, energy efficiency, and clean transportation manufacturing.
The clean energy sector was projected to add 175,000 jobs in 2020 but the COVID-19 pandemic upended the industry and roughly 300,000 clean energy workers were still out of work in the beginning of 2021. Lawmakers argue that the clean energy, energy efficiency, and clean transportation tax incentives will help bring these jobs back, while supporting strong labor standards and domestic manufacturing.

"The importance of clean energy tax policy is made even more apparent and urgent with record-high temperatures in the Pacific Northwest, unprecedented drought across the West, and the impacts of tropical storms felt up and down the East Coast," the lawmakers added.

In addition to U.S. Reps. Blumenauer, Barragan, Crow, Levin, and McEachin, the letter was signed by Reps. Adams, Auchincloss, Axne, Bass, Beatty, Bera, Beyer, Bishop (GA), Blunt Rochester, Bonamici, Boyle, Brown, Brownley, Bustos, Butterfield, Carbajal, Cárdenas, Carson, Cartwright, Casten, Castor, Castro, Chu, Cicilline, Clarke, Cleaver, Cohen, Connolly, Cooper, Correa, Costa, Courtney, Craig, Crist, Davids, Danny K. Davis, Dean, DeFazio, DeGette, DelBene, Delgado, Demings, DeSaulnier, Deutch, Dingell, Doggett, Doyle, Escobar, Eshoo, Espaillat, Evans, Foster, Frankel, Gallego, García (IL), Garcia (TX), Gomez, Gottheimer, Green, Grijalva, Harder, Hayes, Higgins, Himes, Horsford, Houlahan, Huffman, Jackson Lee, Jacobs, Jayapal, Johnson (TX), Johnson (GA), Jones, Kahele, Kaptur, Keating, Kelly (IL), Khanna, Kildee, Kilmer, Kim, Kirkpatrick, Krishnamoorthi, Kuster, Langevin, Larsen, Larson, Lawrence, Lawson, Lee (CA), Lee (NV), Leger Fernandez, Levin (MI), Lieu, Lofgren, Lowenthal, Luria, Lynch, Malinowski, Carolyn B. Maloney, Manning, Matsui, McBath, McCollum, McGovern, McNerney, Meeks, Meng, Morelle, Moulton, Nadler, Napolitano, Neguse, Newman, Norcross, Norton, O'Halleran, Omar, Panetta, Pappas, Pascrell, Payne, Perlmutter, Peters, Phillips, Pingree, Pocan, Porter, Price, Quigley, Raskin, Rice (NY), Ross, Roybal-Allard, Ruiz, Ruppersberger, Rush, Ryan, Sablan, San Nicolas, Sánchez, Sarbanes, Scanlon, Schakowsky, Schiff, Schneider, Schrier, Scott (GA), Scott (VA), Sewell, Sherman, Sherrill, Sires, Smith (WA), Soto, Spanberger, Speier, Stansbury, Stanton, Stevens, Strickland, Suozzi, Swalwell, Takano, Titus, Tonko, Torres (CA), Torres (NY), Trahan, Trone, Vargas, Veasey, Velazquez, Wasserman Schultz, Waters, Watson Coleman, Welch, Wexton, Wild, Williams (GA), and Wilson.

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