WASHINGTON — Many lawmakers in Washington are pushing for a shift away from traditional energy usage in transportation and to more clean energy alternatives.
The CLEAN Futures Act puts a heavy focus on clamping down on the emission of greenhouse gases, with a goal of having net-zero emissions by 2050. The bill put a premium on investing in electric cars to do that.
Indiana Congressman Greg Pence (R) told a House Subcommittee hearing on Wednesday that he is all for investing in alternative fuels in transportation, but he says the bill focuses too much on one alternative in electricity.
“We should seek a diverse slate of technologies and delivery options competing with one another to reduce the financial pressures on our consumers,” Pence told the committee. “Instead of bolstering innovation in transportation fuels, this bill imposes unrealistic deadlines to establish electric vehicles as an only solution.”
He said fuels, such as hydrogen, should also be looked at as alternative fuels in transportation. Pence fears that if you pigeonhole the market with just one source of energy for transportation too quickly, that will drive up the cost of that energy for the people that need to use it.
“On the generation side, the out-of-touch Clean Electricity Standards timeline set in this bill will only drive up costs for consumers,” he said. “In Indiana, efforts to implement wind and solar have already started to increase electricity prices for ratepayers.”
He said the infrastructure needed to meet the demands of the bill is no there yet and that more time and thought is needed in order to do that. One way to speed it up is to put a greater emphasis on private investment in clean energy technologies, he said.
