The House of Representatives’ Friday night passage of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) quickly set off a chorus of praise from clean energy groups and equally fervent calls for both of houses of Congress to finish the job by passing Democrats’ $1.75 trillion budget package, the Build Back Better budget bill.

Parsing the $1.2 trillion in the infrastructure bill, many of the groups zeroed in on the specific provisions and programs for which they had lobbied hard during negotiations in the House and Senate.

A statement from the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE), for example, included a fact sheet with a detailed listing of the bill’s energy efficiency provisions that it had supported, such as Section 40502’s allocation of $2.5 billion over five years for commercial and residential energy audits, with up to 25% going to low-income homeowners. Section 40503, also supported by the alliance, follows up with $40 million over five years for energy auditor training programs.

“While at times the Washington gridlock can feel insurmountable, [Friday’s] votes show that Congress still has the keys,” ASE President Paula Glover said. “This is a moment to celebrate: lawmakers saying ‘yes’ to a more efficient energy future, ‘yes’ to a more consumer-friendly energy system and ‘yes’ to a robust clean energy workforce.”

But Glover also pledged continued action on Build Back Better, to ensure “the final version fully recognizes that efficiency is the fastest, most cost-effective method to decarbonize our economy.” ASE is pushing for restoration of a tax credit to help homeowners pay for energy-efficiency upgrades, she said.

The final vote Friday was 228-206, with 13 Republicans joining all but six Democrats in support. The latter are progressives who had wanted a simultaneous vote on the budget. The trade-off to get the vote on the infrastructure bill was a subsequent procedural vote setting up the budget vote for mid-November, pending an analysis from the Congressional Budget Office that some moderate Democrats had held out for to ensure the bill is completely paid for.

Speaking on Saturday, Biden framed the infrastructure bill’s passage as a big step for the U.S. to deliver on its carbon reduction commitments made at the U.N.’s 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, last week, and to assert its leadership in global clean energy markets.

“It will get America off the sidelines on manufacturing — manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines, battery storage, energy and power for electric vehicles from school buses to automobiles,” he said.

Biden also noted he had not signed the bill immediately over the weekend because he wants to have the Democratic and Republican lawmakers who negotiated the package at the ceremony. It should occur “soon,” he said.

The top line figures for the bill, as reported by Axios’ Sarah Mucha and Andrew Solender, include $73 billion for grid infrastructure, and $7.5 for transportation electrification split evenly between EVs and chargers, low-emission buses and ferries.

A major portion of the bill’s spending covers more traditional infrastructure, for example, to fix the country’s aging roads and bridges ($110 billion), water infrastructure ($55 billion) and rail ($66 billion).

On the more nontraditional side, broadband gets $65 billion, while $47 billion in “resiliency” spending targets flooding, wildfires and coasts.

Getting ‘Steel Underwater’

While $73 billion in grid infrastructure spending looks impressive, Rob Gramlich, president of Grid Strategies, cautioned that the bill’s allocations for new transmission are considerably less, with most of the money going to upgrades and improvements on existing lines.

For new construction, the Department of Energy gets $2.5 billion to support new, non-federal transmission projects by entering into capacity contracts or providing loans to developers, according to Gramlich’s analysis of the bill. DOE’s Smart Grid Investment Matching Grant Program gets $3 billion, which can be used for the purchase and installation of grid-enhancing technologies.

Another key provision requires DOE to consider the integration of renewable energy resources and lower costs to consumers when designating transmission corridors of national interest. It also allows FERC to issue permits for construction or modification of certain interstate transmission facilities if a state commission denies or fails to process an application seeking approval for the siting of such transmission facilities.

The 30% transmission investment tax credit in the Build Back Better bill is probably going to be the main catalyst for new projects, Gramlich said. But he said the funding in the infrastructure bill is a strong signal to developers to begin planning for the buildout of transmission, including for offshore wind.

“With some of these loans and grants, we could go to … the states from Mid-Atlantic through New England and say, ‘Hey, you have 30 GW of offshore wind [planned], but nowhere near the transmission needed to collect it [and] bring it to shore. How about we use some of these new loans and grants?’” Gramlich said in a phone interview with RTO Insider. “We’ll pay for some of it through federal dollars if the states and RTOs can agree on allocating the rest of the costs.”

While getting to “steel underwater” might take a while, he said, the funding “might be the critical link needed to get everybody together to do what’s needed by the end of the decade.”

Urgency to Decarbonize

A sampling of other energy provisions in the 2,740-page bill includes:

• $500 million through 2026 to help states develop energy conservation plans that incorporate transmission and distribution planning, as well as broad vehicle electrification to reduce carbon emissions in transportation sector.
• $140 million for a demonstration project for the mining and refining of rare-earth minerals, using feedstock from mine wastes and drainage, and another $3 billion to be used for grants to support advanced battery manufacturing and recycling. This section also calls the departments of the Interior and Agriculture to work on streamlining permitting for the mining of rare-earth minerals on federal land.
• more than $300 million through 2026 for grants to carbon-utilization projects, and another $100 million in the same time frame to support the design and development of carbon transport systems.
• more than $3.2 billion for DOE’s advanced nuclear demonstration projects through 2027, and $6 billion, split over five years, to support continued operations at existing nuclear plants threatened with closure.

“As the urgency to decarbonize grows, the next generation of nuclear reactors is essential to reaching our ambitious climate goals,” said Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute. “Through continued support for nuclear energy innovation and funding of the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program, Congress has signaled its commitment to accelerating the deployment of innovative reactor technologies over the next decade while bolstering U.S. technological leadership globally.”

Similarly, Madelyn Morrison, external affairs manager for the Carbon Capture Coalition, said the bill’s carbon capture provisions mark “a major step forward in fostering economywide deployment of carbon management technologies to achieve net-zero emissions by midcentury, while ensuring the long-term viability of key domestic industries and safeguarding high-wage jobs that sustain families and communities.”

The bill’s support for offshore wind is more indirect, according to Liz Burdock, CEO and president of the Business Network for Offshore Wind, pointing to its investments in the grid, ports and innovation research. But, Burdock said, “achieving the ambitious offshore wind goals set by the Biden administration requires accelerating the development of a local supply chain as explosive growth in global markets draws investors’ attention away from the American market.”

The next step is passage of Build Back Better, she said, “which includes mission-critical investments in U.S. manufacturing and component development, further port investment and expanded transmission funding. All elements are critical for the full deployment of offshore wind in the U.S.”

Despite the House vote on Friday setting up possible passage for mid-November, the budget bill must still navigate continued in-fighting among House Democrats and further trims and revisions by conservative Democrats in the Senate. But the Democrats’ electoral losses last week in Virginia and narrow gubernatorial victory in New Jersey have increased the pressure for action. (See related story, GOP Wins in Va. Raise Questions About State’s Climate Policy.)

Answering a reporter’s question Saturday on the elections, Biden said, “The one message that came across was: ‘Get something done. It’s time to get something done. You all stop talking. Get something done.’”