Megabill takes a bite out of US climate progress
One model from climate think tank C2ES found U.S. emissions will increase by 8 percent more than they would have been otherwise as a result of the package.
'An 8 percent increase in our emissions is … still a massive amount of emissions,' said Brad Townsend, the group's vice president for policy and outreach.
Taking into account all of the efforts to reduce U.S. emissions over the last 20 years, Townsend said, the bill represents 'rolling back a third of that progress with a stroke of a pen.'
The Trump-backed measure both repeals spending aimed atreducing emissions that had been passed by Democrats and creates more opportunities for planet-warming fossil fuels.
A refresher:
Its most significant provisions repeal tax credits for climate-friendly energy technologies, including wind and solar energy, as well as electric vehicles.
It also repeals programs that would have paid for low-carbon and anti-pollution projects, including in underserved neighborhoods.
It includes tax breaks for oil, gas and coal and opens up more opportunities to drill on public lands and offshore.
A model from Princeton University finds that without the 'big, beautiful bill,' the U.S. would cut its planet-heating emissions by 32 percent by 2035. With the bill, emissions are expected to only drop by 25 percent compared to where they were in 2005.
If Biden-era policies remained in place, including not only the tax credits but also regulations, emissions would drop between 40 percent and 44 percent, the model finds.
A model from the Rhodium Group found that without the bill, emissions would be 31 percent to 51 percent lower in 2035 when compared to 2005. Now, they'll only drop by between 27 percent and 44 percent during that period.
Ben King, the lead author of the analysis, said this is a 'pretty substantial difference' — saying it's about 575 million extra metric tons of carbon dioxide in the year 2035 alone.
That's the equivalent of putting an additional 134 million gas-powered cars on the road for a year.
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