As American energy costs spike, 120 House Democrats have introduced the Energy Bills Relief Act to bring back money-saving incentives that were repealed by republicans last year.
Energy costs are rising around America, both for electricity and motor gasoline. The spikes in prices come in the middle of an affordability crisis, which is only deepening as government policy works to make it worse.
In recent months, republicans have done their best to ensure energy costs increase and Americans become more reliant on their fossil fuel masters.
- The EPA, currently occupied by Lee Zeldin, who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from the oil industry over his political ccareer, has implemented rollbacks that it knows will increase gas prices by $.76/gal (along with killing thousands of people, but that doesn’t matter to Zeldin, who says your life is worth nothing).
- The Energy Department, occupied by oil CEO Chris Wright, has repeatedly demanded that broken, dirty, and expensive c
- plants stay open, even when they’re not being used at all, despite the high costs imposed on local communities by these orders.
- The Interior Department, occupied by Doug Burgum, who has also received hundreds of thousands in bribes from fossil fuels, cut 400k homes worth of electricity just before Christmas, from one of the cheapest energy sources there is.
- And of course, there’s $4 trillion giveaway to wealthy elites that republicans in Congress passed last year. Not only did that channel money to the ultra-wealthy and ship American clean energy manufacturing jobs overseas, it took some of that money from incentives that were being used to regular homeowners to decrease their energy bills, saving thousands of dollars per family.
So, today, Democrats proposed a fix.
It’s called the Energy Bills Relief Act, introduced by Sean Casten (D-IL) and Mike Levin (D-CA). It’s co-sponsored by 120 House Democrats with a series of provisions to help bring energy bills back down. They summarize the bill’s points thusly:
- Reinstating tax credits for home and system-wide energy improvements that were ended by President Trump and congressional Republicans
- Incentivizing utility companies to save consumers’ money by rewarding them for making their systems more efficient, thereby lowering bills
- Providing financial assistance to American families to make sure their power isn’t shut off
- Cracking down on price gouging, so energy companies can’t take advantage of you to boost their profits
- Ensuring that facilities like data centers are paying for their own costs because it’s not fair for their expenses to be pushed onto your household if one opens in your area
- Giving a voice to the American people so they can benefit from energy projects in their community
It would also stop republicans’ various illegal attacks on clean energy projects, like their attempts to shutdown offshore wind. These attacks have mostly been reversed in court, but that hasn’t stopped republicans from trying again and again.
The bill is supported by a series of environmental and health organizations such as the League of Conservation Voters, BlueGreen Alliance, Public Citizen, Solar Energy Industries Association, Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club, Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the American Lung Association, among many others.
More energy to fuel EVs/AI
The bill would bring something that republicans have asked for for a long time: permitting reform.
One of the issues with our energy system is that permitting for new projects takes a long time. Reform is needed to get more capacity online quickly, especially with electricity use rising from EVs, home electrification and AI data centers.
However, republican efforts to reform permitting have mostly not focused on getting more capacity online – they’ve focused on making it easier to pollute, and harder to build new clean energy projects.
But clean energy projects are where all the money is going, because they’re cheaper and better. So slowing down their permitting just means we can’t get the energy we need, while also ensuring that the energy system we have is more costly and more polluting.
And speaking of AI, the Energy Bills Relief Act takes aim at AI data centers, ensuring that they are paying their fair share. Data centers have been associated with a rise in electricity prices, and the bill seeks to ensure that AI companies are paying their own costs instead of offloading these onto the communities surrounding them.
But will it pass?
And yet, it seems unlikely that this bill to reduce your energy costs will pass. Republicans in Congress and the executive branch (squatted in by a man who is Constitutionally barred from holding office) have repeatedly shown their interest in increasing your electricity bills and ensuring the US be more dependent on foreign oil.
And of course, there’s the second oil conflict started just this year, which has sent fuel prices up sharply globally, with little strategic reason behind it. That could have been avoided with more clean energy at home, and with more electric cars using it as fuel, but republicans are doing everything they can to stop the best route to energy independence we have.
Nevertheless, it would be worthwhile for you to get in contact with your Congressional representative and let them know if you support the Energy Bills Relief Act. At the very least, it shows how little interest republicans have in relieving your high energy costs – and there’s always the prospect of change come November.
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