Adds details of the bill throughout.
The US Congress is set to vote soon on a bipartisan $900bn stimulus deal that will provide more Covid-19 relief, offer cash payments to taxpayers and extend energy tax credits.
The stimulus deal, announced last night, will offer hundreds of billions of dollars of aid to small businesses and workers struggling from the weight of nine months of lockdowns and other measures intended to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Congress is seeking to approve the measure as soon as tonight by including it as part of a massive year-end 5,593-page legislative package that will fund the federal government through the end of September.
Democrats intend to seek more stimulus spending once president-elect Joe Biden takes office on 20 January, but their task that will be harder if Republicans retain control of the US Senate in runoff elections next month. Biden yesterday applauded the deal but said he would be asking Congress to support his Covid-19 plan that will seek to expand vaccinations, mask-wearing and economic investments.
"We cannot do this alone," Biden said. "Immediately, starting in the new year, Congress will need to get to work."
The bill would offer $15bn in grants to airlines to retain workers and $30bn for public transit agencies and other transportation industries hard-hit by the pandemic. The bill would also provide about $10bn for local highways, about $13bn for agricultural interests and farmers and funds for vaccine distribution. It will also offer hundreds of billions of dollars though a second round of "payroll protection" grants for small businesses that have been popular for oil and gas service contractors.
In a win for renewable energy companies, the final package includes a one-year extension of a production tax credit for wind and other renewable energy sources, a two-year extension of a solar investment tax credit and a four-year extension of an offshore wind tax credit. The bill would set a goal for the US Interior Department to approve 25GW of renewable energy projects on federal land by 2025.
The bill would includes a variety of "tax extenders" related to energy. It would extend through the end of 2025 the collection of a 9¢/bl excise tax that oil producers, refiners and others pay to fund the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. Another part of the bill would include a one year-extension, until 1 January 2022, of a tax credit for second-generation biofuel production. It would also include a two-year extension of the 45Q carbon capture tax credit so it would expire on 1 January 2026.
Another part of the bill would add language to reauthorize the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration through the fiscal year 2023. The measure would direct pipeline operators to bolster efforts to detect leaks, require the agency to finalize a measure to oversee gas gathering lines and expand safety rules for LNG facilities.
The package would also include parts of a wide-ranging bill to support energy research, energy efficiency improvements and carbon capture technology. It will direct a trading program to phase down the use of hydrofluorocarbons, a potent greenhouse gas, by 85pc over 15 years. And it would include a bill named the USE IT Act that would promote carbon capture projects.
Targeted package
US Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said the stimulus deal was the "targeted" package he had sought for months. Republicans expect the stimulus bill's $600 cash payments to taxpayers, extended unemployment aid and additional small business aid will help US senators Kelly Loeffler (R-Georgia) and David Perdue (R-Georgia) win runoff elections that could determine control of the Senate.
Democrats say that it was only because of opposition by the Republican-led Senate that they were unable to provide a more generous package, including hundreds of billions of dollars in support to state and local government that have already laid off more than 1mn workers because of funding shortages. Republicans in the final package agreed to leave out contested language shielding employers from lawsuits related to Covid-19 exposure.
As the deal was coming into place last night, Congress enacted a one-day stopgap funding measure to prevent a government shutdown. Congress will need to enact another such bill if it is unable to pass the package by tonight.
