The Treasury Department’s proposed rules for clean electricity tax credits would be a boon for natural gas power plants, according to a new report from Friends of the Earth.
The report, shared first with POLITICO’s E&E News, takes aim at the proposal’s use of “book-and-claim” accounting. That approach would allow gas plants to qualify for the new tax credits by purchasing offsets — including those generated by capturing methane from farms and landfills.
The fossil fuel and agriculture industries have urged the Biden administration to adopt that accounting method. But Friends of the Earth asserts that doing so could upend the climate goals of the Inflation Reduction Act.
“This scheme would create a nesting doll of climate devastation at every layer,” the report says. “Utilities would be subsidized to continue investing in new fossil gas power. Factory farms and landfills selling biogas offsets would be incentivized to maximize and concentrate pollution rather than adopt more sustainable practices.”