Key US senator sees 'path forward' for Build Back Better energy provisions

One of the leading advocates for aggressive climate action in the U.S. Senate is optimistic that Congress can pass some version of the sprawling Build Back Better Act that would preserve the bill's key climate and energy provisions.

That outlook mirrors recent comments from U.S. President Joe Biden, who said he was confident that the bill's roughly $550 billion in proposed climate spending could become law even if the broader Build Back Better legislation founders.

"I believe that there is a path forward," U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said during a Jan. 25 virtual event hosted by Clean Energy for America. "It might not be called the Build Back Better Act ... but there is a path forward, particularly on the climate provisions."

The approximately $2 trillion Build Back Better Act contains many of Biden's signature social spending and climate priorities. These include a 10-year program of new and extended clean energy tax incentives totaling about $320 billion. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill along party lines in November 2021, but the legislation has stalled in the Senate amid opposition from Republicans and moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

But Smith emphasized that Manchin "doesn't have big issues with the climate provisions," meaning Democrats could muster enough votes in the Senate to pass those pieces of the bill using the budget reconciliation process.

"What we need to do, in short order ... is to figure out what has 50 votes and then pass what has 50 votes," the senator said.

Smith added that the Build Back Better Act's clean energy tax credits are "the key component that we have the possibility of getting passed."

Smith and fellow Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., have been proponents of a national clean electricity standard that would require load-serving entities to raise the percentage of power they provide from emissions-free sources. House Democrats originally planned to include a modified version of the standard in the Build Back Better Act but removed the program amid pushback from Manchin.

Smith said she did not see a path forward for a clean electricity standard or clean power payment program in 2022 but would keep pushing support for the policy in future Congresses. In the meantime, Democrats will press hard for Build Back Better.

The bill "will be moved in some form or fashion," Luján said during the Jan. 25 event. "We're not giving up on it."