As Democrats sketch out a path forward for at least parts of President Joe Biden's flagship Build Back Better Act, a group of over 260 companies on Monday called on Congress to urgently finalize negotiations on the legislation and seize "a once-in-a-generation opportunity" to deliver the "big, bold action to deliver the clean energy future Americans want and deserve."
"The time to act is now," the energy firms wrote in a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)
Led by the American Clean Power Association, the letter touts both economic benefits and planet-heating emissions reductions that could be achieved through passage of climate-related provisions in the Build Back Better Act.
Calling themselves "leaders in the clean energy industry," the letter's signatories wrote that they "stand ready to deploy tens of billions of dollars to expand our domestic manufacturing capacity and to employ American workers to build the equipment and projects to power our clean energy transition."
With the legislation's ability to "more than double clean energy investment to $750 billion over the next 10 years," it could bring "one million, good-paying American jobs" while at the same time reaching "750 GW of wind, solar, and battery storage by 2030" and slashing emissions in the power sector by nearly 70% below 2005 levels, the letter asserts.
Signatories to the new letter include renewable-focused firms like Newport Solar and Eden Renewables as well as fossil fuel giants bp America and Shell.
The letter comes days after Biden said last week that "we are going to have to probably break it up" in reference to BBB, a development that followed Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) declaration last month that he wouldn't Senate passage of the already watered-down measure.
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In a Monday thread on Twitter, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) echoed some of the comments he made last week about a path forward for BBB through the reconciliation process.
"We start with the climate, energy, and environmental jobs and justice provisions which are largely worked through, financed, and agreed upon. Then we add as many of the working families provisions that can reach 50 votes as we can," wrote Markey.
"The future of our planet cannot wait," he added. "That is why we must pass a reconciliation bill with climate action at its core before the State of the Union. And what we do not pass in this deal becomes our agenda going forward and what we run on in the 2022 elections."
