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Special Episode: Unpacking Climate Action in Congress

Special Episode: Unpacking Climate Action in Congress

FromThoughts on the Market


Special Episode: Unpacking Climate Action in Congress

FromThoughts on the Market

ratings:
Length:
8 minutes
Released:
Sep 21, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

This Climate Week, we preview environmental policy proposals within the $3.5 Trillion Budget Reconciliation Bill. What will it mean for investors and the response to climate change?----- Transcript -----Jessica Alsford Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I'm Jessica Alsford, global head of Sustainability Research team at Morgan Stanley.Stephen Byrd And I'm Stephen Byrd, head of Morgan Stanley's North American Research for the Power & Utilities and Clean Energy Industries.Jessica Alsford And on this special Climate Week episode, we'll be talking about some landmark climate and environmental policy proposals in the U.S. and the future of energy. It's Tuesday, September the 21st, at 2:00 p.m. in London.Stephen Byrd And 9:00 a.m. in New York.Jessica Alsford So, Stephen, earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives released a draft of some climate and environmental policies as part of its $3.5T budget reconciliation package. I want to dig into your takeaways, but first of all, maybe you could walk us through some of the headline proposals.Stephen Byrd Absolutely, Jessica. This is one of the most exciting pieces of proposed legislation we've seen in the United States, at least with respect to clean energy. And I'll just highlight a handful of very important provisions that are currently in the draft. First, there's a very bold, clean electricity performance program or CEPP that would provide significant incentives for utilities and other loads of green entities to increase their renewables every year. Secondly, there would be a new tax credit for energy storage and biofuels. Third, a major extension of tax credits for wind, solar, fuel cells and carbon capture and payment levels are higher in many cases. Fourth, significant incentives for domestic manufacturing of clean energy equipment. Fifth, what we would call direct pay for tax credits, which basically provides owners with the immediate cash benefit of tax losses. That provides enhanced financing efficiency and better cash flow. Six, a nuclear power production tax credit. Seven, a major clean hydrogen tax credit. And lastly, number eight, significant capital to reduce the risk of wildfires. So very significant. Covers a lot of different areas within the entire clean energy spectrum.Jessica Alsford Absolutely. There's a huge amount in there. I guess maybe just to pick out some key points, are there any particular technologies that you think could really incrementally benefit from this bill versus what the status quo is at the moment?Stephen Byrd Yes, there's definitely a handful of technologies that would benefit in a very significant way. I would say. Probably first on my list is green hydrogen. The proposed payment is three dollars a kilogram - this is the subsidy amount - which is a very large amount of subsidy, in our view, would really kick start growth of green hydrogen across the board in the United States. We did a deep dive into the economics of producing green hydrogen over time, and we do think this amount of subsidy would be a huge boost to the growth of green hydrogen, would defray much of the cost producing green hydrogen. So, any company involved in green hydrogen, I think would see a significant benefit here.Stephen Byrd Another, nuclear power, not new nuclear projects, but existing nuclear assets would receive significant financial support. That is going to serve essentially as a stabilizing force to ensure that we don't see additional shutdowns of nuclear power plants. So that's a big win. I'd say, also, energy storage gets a tax credit for the first time and demand for energy storage is already very high in the United States, but a tax credit that would essentially line up with wind and solar would, we think, provide further incentive for more rapid growth of energy storage. So those are a couple that I would highlight as significant beneficiaries from this proposed legislation.Jessica Alsford Now, this text is the initial draft and say we should probab
Released:
Sep 21, 2021
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Short, thoughtful and regular takes on recent events in the markets from a variety of perspectives and voices within Morgan Stanley.