Rep. Horsford demands Congress pass clean energy transmission project legislation
On Friday, U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) urged Senate leaders to pass a clean energy transmission project bill and send it to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
In a letter to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Horsford said the Electric Power Infrastructure Improvement Act would create an investment tax credit to promote transmission projects across the country. The bill, Horsford wrote, would benefit more than 22 large-scale projects, including the Greenlink West Project in Nevada, and support more than 500,000 jobs while bringing renewable energy resources to market.
“We have made significant progress in the last decade in clean energy generation; however, we are simply not doing enough to incentivize investments for the required transmission capacity,” Horsford wrote. “Tax incentives have proven to be a major signal to investors to put their capital behind wind, solar and geothermal. We should encourage the same type of growth for the infrastructure that will deliver the power from these resources to market.”
Developing Nevada’s rural solar and geothermal resources, Horsford said, would create jobs and accelerate the state’s economic recovery and help the state achieve its clean energy goals. That development, however, depends on strong electric transmission infrastructure.
“Wind, solar, and geothermal energy sources can work together to form a reliable power mix, but only if there is a robust grid to integrate it all,” Horsford wrote.
Horsford said seizing on the “once-in-a-generation opportunity to combat climate change” and passing the legislation would provide good-paying jobs and a better future for the country’s children.
