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US President Joe Biden is looking to promote clean energy as part of his domestic agenda which is included in the stalled social and climate infrastructure bill. Biden met with CEOs of utility companies this week to promote his proposals for clean energy.
Biden hosted utility CEOs this week at the White House, Bloomberg reports. Biden explained that his proposals would lower prices and create jobs while making the country’s power grid more resilient to extreme weather. This marks another effort by Biden to shore up support for the legislation from the corporate sector.
“Companies are betting on a clean energy future and the world is betting on American workers to build it,” said Biden during the meeting with the executives. The US leader also noted the efforts by other industries to adapt to a clean energy future.
The CEOs in attendance were Tom Fanning of Southern, Co., Nick Akins of American Electric Power Co. Inc., Pedro Pizzarro of Edison International, Lynn Good of Duke Energy, Dennis Arriola of Avangrid, Inc., and Patricia Vincent-Collawn of PNM Resources. Other leaders that also attended were Warner Baxter of Ameren Corp., Calvin Butler of Exelon Corp., Gerry Anderson of DTE Energy Co., and Tom Kuhn of Edison Electric Institute.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy, and Deputy National Climate Adviser Ali Zaldi were also present at the meeting.
The climate provisions included in the Build Back Better legislation would be a $550 billion investment, with over $300 billion allocated for new and expanded tax credits for wind and solar power, nuclear plants, and other aspects that have support from utilities.
In other related news, the tradition of having a pre-Super Bowl Sunday presidential interview will continue this year, with Biden sitting down with NBC Nightly News host Lester Holt for the interview. Holt will be interviewing Biden Thursday in Virginia and will air on NBC Nightly News on the same day, with additional highlights from the interview airing Friday on “Today,” MSNBC, NBCNews.com, and NBC News Now.
This would also mark Biden’s second pre-Super Bowl interview as president as he sat down with CBS Norah O’Donnell last year.
