by Ella Nilsson | CNN
Three congressional sources told CNN that the Clean Electricity Performance Program, the cornerstone climate policy in Democrats’ massive social safety net package, will be dropped from the final budget deal after pushback from West Virginia Sen.
“He is not on CEPP period. We’re trying,” a Democratic aide with knowledge of the talks told CNN. The aide told CNN that Democrats are trying to find ways to restructure the program to address Munchkin’s concerns while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“Whatever comes next will not be called CEPP, but we are strongly hoping and thinking that there will be ways to accomplish what it wants,” the aide said. I don’t think there is anything like CEPP in it.”
The New York Times was the first to report that the measure would be cut.
Democrats designed the program to give utilities federal grants to increase their share of electricity from clean sources and to punish those who fail their clean electricity.
Manchin has been critical of the concept from the start, saying it would pay utilities to do something they’re already doing — transition away from fossil fuels.
.
