President Joe Biden re-upped his push for Congress to dust off spending proposals, which he says would help more Americans switch to electric vehicles with the assistance of tax credits.
Biden, during Tuesday’s State of the Union address, also urged lawmakers for action on spending to incentivize solar and other alternative energy options
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including for consumers.
Read: State of the Union: Here’s the full text of Biden’s speech
Doing so will help the nation battle inflation, which has been stoked in part by high natural gas
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and gasoline prices, the president said.
“Let’s cut energy costs for families an average of $500 a year by combatting climate change,” he said.
“Let’s provide investments and tax credits to weatherize your homes and businesses to be energy efficient and you get a tax credit; double America’s clean-energy production in solar, wind and so much more; lower the price of electric vehicles
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saving you another $80 a month because you’ll never have to pay at the gas pump again,” Biden said.
Read: A ‘Made in America’ EV tax credit — what car buyers need to know if Biden can advance a sliced-and-diced Build Back Better bill
U.S. benchmark oil
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soared above $100 a barrel in Tuesday trading, closing at its highest since 2014. Natural gas
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is trading up some 30% so far this year. The average household is spending an extra $250 a month, or $3,000 per year, due to high inflation overall, by this measure.
The administration has urged households to consider solar panels, smart thermostats and heat pumps, plus other technology for their homes to save power and money.
The administration’s estimate of savings is based on an analysis by the well-respected Rhodium Group, issued last October. According to Rhodium’s assessment, households would save roughly $500 a year in energy costs by 2030 under a mix of federal regulations, state actions and congressional legislation.
The president also highlighted $47 billion in climate-resilience and climate-justice funding in last year’s bipartisan infrastructure legislation, saying it is already being deployed to counteract extreme weather events like fires, floods and droughts.
“We’ll build a national network of 500,000 electric-vehicle charging stations,” Biden said, repeating his administration’s earlier announcement.
“We’re done talking about infrastructure weeks. We’re now talking about an infrastructure decade,” Biden said.
Read: Ahead of Biden’s State of the Union, here’s how he’s delivered on his priorities so far
Biden has said he may try to advance climate- and energy-spending asks separately. Tuesday night’s speech did not include an update on such plans.
Biden, who has made climate-change and energy-efficiency initiatives a key focus of his first term, says he wants the U.S. on a path to halve its emissions by the end of the decade, a move in step with most of the globe’s largest nations.
He has also expressed interest in Republican-favored approaches to cutting emissions, including carbon capture and storage, nuclear and still-nascent green hydrogen technologies.
Read: More and more right-leaning Americans worry about climate change, but aren’t ready to give up gas stoves
