This is not the green stimulus you’re looking for

Source: BY KELSEY TAMBORRINO, Politico • Posted: Wednesday, May 13, 2020

House Democrats unveiled a $3 trillion package on Tuesday to respond to the coronavirus crisis that they’re planning to vote on at the end of the week . The 1,815-page measure is largely a messaging bill with no chance of passing the Republican-led Senate in its current form, but the bill omits any major climate change or clean-energy provisions that some green groups had hoped to see, Pro’s Annie Snider, Anthony Adragna and Eric Wolff report. Here’s what did make it:

• Water, utility shutoffs: $1.5 billion would go to help low-income households cover their water bills. The measure would also place a moratorium on utility service shutoffs for any entity receiving federal relief funds.
• Environmental justice: A $50 million program for environmental justice grants to be administered by EPA.
• Native American tribes: $30 million for Native American tribes to deliver potable water to residents lacking access.
• Biofuels: Direct assistance would be offered to biofuel producers slammed by the pandemic by paying them 45 cents for each gallon an affected biofuel plant produced between Jan. 1 and May 1 of this year.

NOT FORGOTTEN BY HOYER: Democrats’ bill does not contain any sort of clean-energy tax credits, nor does it include any funds to fill up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. But Majority Leader Steny Hoyerbroke with many members of his own party on Tuesday, urging Congress to take advantage of low crude oil prices to refill the SPR, Anthony reports.

“Both parties have used part of the Strategic Petroleum [Reserve] supply , which was created to make sure that we had energy available to us at a time of crisis where oil supplies were shut off,” Hoyer said on a call with reporters. “Now, circumstances change, and we are the world’s largest producer of energy now. But I think this is a time to restock the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and make sure that we have a supply.”