At a meeting with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan on Tuesday, Apple's
"Apple has come out as a vocal supporter of a clean energy standard, of 100% clean grid by 2035. We would love to see that," Jackson told reporters. "It would make everyone's job easier, if you could just source clean energy the way you source all your energy needs today."
The elimination goal originally came as a part of the Biden Administration's Clean Energy Standard included in Biden's American Jobs Plan infrastructure package, but the Clean Energy Standard was removed before the package was approved by Congress. There is still a chance that the elimination goal could be included in the $3.5 trillion budget resolution currently under debate.
"This clean electricity standard is about investing in clean energy. It is a budget-based plan. And so it clearly fits within a budget bill," Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn. said of the plan in July.
The Clean Energy Standard plan includes using 80% clean electricity by 2030 and 100% by 2035. The plan also includes a proposed tariff on imports heavy in carbon from countries not properly addressing their carbon footprint.
"We're really proud of the fact that we were, I think, the first company to come out in favor of the clean energy standard, which is part of that infrastructure bill," Jackson said.
This isn't the first time that Apple has voiced its support for climate initiatives. In 2018, the company announced that all of its global facilities would be powered by 100% clean energy moving forward.
"We're committed to leaving the world better than we found it," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a 2018 statement. "We're going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible...to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it."
Apple may be on board with the clean standard, but negotiations remain underway in the House, and presidential approval will also be needed before the plan can take effect.
The American Jobs Plan included some climate action, but the White House says it is merely their first step to addressing this issue and that more initiatives may be included in the budget resolution.
The $3.5 trillion deal contains clean energy tax incentives, electric vehicle tax incentives, and major investments in renewable resources. This bill would be the largest legislative action on climate change ever in the U.S.
According to Jackson, upcoming climate action will probably also include mandatory disclosures of carbon emissions to the SEC.
"We'll probably talk about SEC disclosure, and Apple's belief that we need to have companies be required to be transparent about their carbon emissions and what they're doing about it," said Jackson, former EPA Administrator under then-President Barack Obama. "If you're not measuring it, if you're not talking about it, if you're not reporting it, then you can't change it."
