The US administration has unveiled a 10-year US$2,000bn infrastructure plan, which proposes US$100bn in spending to upgrade and build out the country’s electric transmission system. The plan provides a targeted investment tax credit that incentivises the buildout of at least 20 GW of high-voltage capacity power lines and creates a new Grid Deployment Authority within the Department of Energy empowered to leverage existing rights-of-way along roads and railways.
The White House proposes to extent for a decade the investment and production tax credits for clean energy generation and storage and establish an Energy Efficiency and Clean Electricity Standard (EECES) aimed at cutting electricity bills and electricity pollution. The country intends to achieve 100% carbon-free power mix by 2035. The plan includes US$16bn to plug orphan oil and gas wells and restoring and reclaiming abandoned coal, hard rock, and uranium mines.
In addition, the country will invest US$174bn to boost the markets for electric vehicles and US$35bn to develop clean energy technology, including US$15bn in demonstrations projects such utility-scale energy storage, carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen, advanced nuclear, rare earth element separations, floating offshore wind, biofuel and bioproducts, quantum computing, and electric vehicles. Finally, the White House plans to spend US$621bn for standard physical infrastructure and modernising public transit and US$213bn to produce, preserve, and retrofit more than 2 million homes and commercial buildings.