Biden energy secretary touts his $2 trillion spending plan in visit to Sacramento

President Joe Biden’s energy secretary, touring a SMUD training academy in south Sacramento County, made a pitch Friday for the president’s stalled Build Back Better climate and social-spending bill.

Secretary Jennifer Granholm, after inspecting an array of solar panels and industrial-scale storage batteries, said the $2 trillion bill would help Biden realize his goal of building a carbon-free electric grid by 2035.

The legislation has passed the House but is stalled in the Senate because Biden has so far failed to cut a deal with holdout Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Biden himself said Thursday he needs more time to reach agreement, and Democratic leaders indicated Friday the bill probably won’t pass until January.

Among other things, the bill would appropriate more than $500 billion for climate-related initiatives, including tax credits for buying electric cars, installing solar panels and retrofitting buildings.

“I urge my Senate colleagues to get that done,” said Rep. Ami Bera, D-Elk Grove, who toured the site with Granholm.

Granholm didn’t address the bill’s likelihood of passing the Senate but said it’s essential to making renewable energy more widespread — and reliable. Between the Build Back Better bill and the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill Biden signed last month, “we will get to the president’s goal of getting 100% of our electricity from clean sources,” she said.

Battery storage is critical to reliability, she said, applauding the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s construction of a small battery farm outside its training academy. Energy experts agree that having more batteries will make the grid more reliable after the sun goes down and solar panels stop generating power — a problem that led to blackouts in California during an August 2020 heatwave.

“Utility-scale batteries can make renewable energy that mother lode,” Granholm said. She said the Build Back Better bill would provide funding to make the batteries — which can cost thousands of dollars apiece — far more affordable.

Granholm appeared to back off on her recent suggestion that PG&E Corp., in order to improve grid reliability, keep its Diablo Canyon nuclear plant operating beyond its 2025 planned shutdown date.

While Granholm said she believes nuclear energy can play a role as a source of “zero-carbon energy,” she said she respects California’s decision to go without nukes.

“In many communities, it is not acceptable,” she said. “California has made a decision on Diablo Canyon and they’re moving in a decision to close it down. I totally respect that.”

PG&E has said it will move forward with plans to close the plant.

Granholm also declined to take a position on a controversial plan by the California Public Utilities Commission to scale back the subsidy paid to homeowners of rooftop panels, saying she wasn’t familiar with the details.

The plan, set for a vote in January, would dramatically reduce the credit paid to homeowners for excess power they ship to the grid — a decision that solar-industry leaders have said would stun the growth of solar panel installations in California.

Granholm praised California for being “such a leader” in the adoption of solar.

“Whatever California can do to increase the amount of solar ... I applaud them for doing and hopefully making it affordable for people to be able to do that,” Granholm said.

During her visit to the SMUD training facility, Granholm saw apprentice linemen shimmy up utility poles and demonstrate other skills. After hearing that few women participate in the training courses, she said, “We’ve got to get more women in here — we can climb poles!”

This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 2:11 PM.