Utility companies are getting into green energy in a much bigger way in recent years, in part due to state-level mandateson how much energy regulated utilities must produce each year. But for some, the change isn’t happening fast enough, and certainly not at the scale they want.

The Biden administrations response? The clean energy “czar,” Gina McCarthy, says there could be a regulatory “edict” on the way if Congress doesn’t act to squeeze more green out of utilities:

McCarthy stressed the importance of Congress advancing an array of climate policies — including longer-lasting and more-effective renewable tax credits that complement a utility-focused mandate. Expanded tax incentives “just means we have businesses ready,” McCarthy said. “What the clean-electricity standard says is ‘Go — don’t wait, go — because we are going to put you on a schedule that says you get out of the gate and run, and you keep running.”

“Without that, there’s going to have be a regulatory strategy to move that forward,” McCarthy said, “and I think we all can agree that a clean-electricity standard can actually be that motivator out of the gate that will allow us to get the kind of impacts at scale that we really need to have now.”

Even without Congress, the Biden administration is moving to write rules clamping down on greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, power plants and oil wells. And other policies are under consideration — including a border adjustment tariff that could be levied on carbon-intensive imports, like an approach set to be unveiled by the European Union.

A mish-mash of carrots, sticks, and snares, on top of the ones already in place at the state level. Despite the regulatory tangle, U.S. emissions are still declining, in part due to the switch from coal to natural gas. Want to cut emissions even more? Build more nuclear capacity. No carbon dioxide emissions, solid base power source, and creates good jobs at good wages (no federal edicts required).