A new bipartisan bill to address climate change has been introduced by the Republican representative of the 23rd Congressional District of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives.

On Tuesday, Rep. Tom Reed, R-Corning, discussed the bill during his weekly conference call with regional news media. Reed said he hopes the bill will be the cornerstone of the Republican representation on the environment and climate change.

“The climate is changing, and innovation and the American people are going to lead the way to address climate change,” Reed said.

Reed said the Energy Sector Innovation Credit Act to encourage U.S. energy market innovation and ensure future generations have clean air to breath and clean water to drink is a different idea than the Democrat’s New Green Deal bill.

“This is about releasing American innovation,” Reed said. “You can have all the mandates that my Democratic colleagues want to support … or you can embrace innovation.”

The bill is also being introduced by Democrats Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Jimmy Panetta of California and Tom Suozzi of New York, along with Republicans Darrin LaHood of Illinois and David Schweikert of Arizona.

“We must unleash the greatest asset we have available to prevent this pending crisis — the power of American ingenuity and innovation,” Reed said in a news release. “This tactic has proven time and time again to solve world problems — and this situation will be no different. By offering a tax incentive for new energy technologies we will increase energy on the grid, ensure unneeded energy is not financially rewarded and thus unnecessarily produced, help cutting-edge technologies break into the market, incentive older energy sources to innovate and slash global emissions.”

Reed said the Energy Sector Innovation Credit Act will help cutting-edge technologies break into the market; naturally phases down the tax credit as each technology becomes commercially viable; brings new technologies to the market to quickly and cheaply reduce global emissions; ensures the United States remains a leader on clean energy technology development and deployment; and leverages new private investment in budding clean technologies through a tech-neutral approach.

Reed said the new bill, if passed, will prevent “double dipping” so companies cannot manipulate the tax code. He said the cost on investment will be small because it will be based on innovation. He added there will be two components of the tax credit. One will be an individual component to purchase tax credits for tax return purposes that will allow for a pool of cash for people with the new ideas. The second component will be for energy producers and delivers who will receive a production tax credit.

Examples would include offshore wind and next generation nuclear energy projects, Reed said.

“The best ideas will win the day,” he said.

In other business, Reed encouraged county residents to continue voting for the village of Fredonia for Season 5 of Small Business Revolution. On Tuesday, it was announced that Fredonia made the top five communities for the show produced by Deluxe, which provides the winning community with $500,000 in business revitalization funds and a platform to showcase the transformation on the television show. The show is hosted by Amanda Brinkman and Ty Pennington and airs on Hulu and Amazon Prime.

“If this brings $500,000 to the people of Fredonia, they will know how to use it best,” Reed said. “I encourage everyone to vote, vote, vote.”

People can sign up for voting reminders and qualify for the Vote My Fredonia Contest, which has more than $1,000 in prizes that will be given out including Buffalo Bills tickets, Buffalo Sabres tickets, a Florida condo stay (travel not included), and many prizes donated by local Fredonia businesses. When someone signs up for email and text reminders they get more chances to win. Go to VoteMyFredonia.com for more information and to sign up. You can also sign up for text reminders by texting myfredonia to 31996.