A bill introduced in the House Tuesday would charge companies for emitting greenhouse gasses and reserve some of the proceeds for states and tribes hosting permanent nuclear-waste disposal sites.
Filed in the second half of a contentious presidential election year in which control of Congress teeters on eight seats in the House and only one in the Senate, Rep. Paul Tonko’s (D-N.Y.) Climate Pollution Standard and Community Investment Act would require companies that emit greenhouse gasses, or trade in fossil fuels, to buy federal pollution allowances.
These allowances would be auctioned off quarterly by the Environmental Protection Agency beginning in 2026, according to Tonko’s bill.
In addition, 0.5% of the annual auctions proceeds would be “provided to each State and Indian Tribe for which a repository where high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel are permanently disposed of is located within the jurisdiction of the State or Indian Tribe.”
If multiple states and tribes are eligible for a share of the auction proceeds, those with more waste stored in their territory would get a larger share, according to the bill.
Tonko is the ranking member of the House energy and Commerce environment, manufacturing and critical materials subcommittee. His reliably Democratic upstate district is about 20 miles west of the borders of Massachusetts and Vermont. It includes most of Albany, the state capital, and runs about 60 miles north to south and about 30 miles east to west.
An eight-term congressman running for a ninth term, Tonko won reelection in 2022 by about 10 percentage points. The district in 2020 went for then-candidate Joe Biden (D) by about 20% of the vote.
