America’s green energy industry takes on the fossil-fuel lobby

ONE WAY TO read the Democrats’ wished-for budget bill is that it signals a new age of renewable energy in America. Once a laggard by European standards, the fast-growing industry is central to Joe Biden’s plan to decarbonise the grid. Hence the Democratic effort to make the tax credits that wind and solar companies enjoy more generous, push utilities to buy more of the electricity they produce, and penalise any that do not. The administration believes the boost this would give to wind and solar firms would enable them to supply over half of the country’s electricity by 2030.