No. 12: Everything to know about the Inflation Reduction Act
First off, thanks and welcome to all of my new subscribers, happy to have you here in the G&S gang, where we try to understand all sides (after all, what do pessimism and optimism make? Balance!) to better understand what’s going on around us (which is a LOT this week).
So we passed the IRA. What now?
So, the Inflation Reduction Act was passed by the House on Friday (sorry for misleading you there, all of the media kept saying it was already passed, despite that just being the Senate, which was harder than the House) and I have some thoughts!
First, here’s a thorough, informative fact sheet from Climate Justice Alliance.
There appears to be 12 benefits and 12 disadvantages, with a brief overview below, but be sure to check out the whole page and see what areas the Dems missed.
Benefits
Funding to Address Air Pollution: $3M
Funding to Address Air Pollution in Schools: $37.5M
Diesel Emission Reductions: $60M
Grants to Reduce Air Pollution at Ports: $750M
Clean Heavy Duty Vehicles: $400M
Office of Insular Affairs Climate Change Technical Assistance: $15M
Bureau of Reclamation Domestic Water Supply: $550M
Black Lung Disability Trust Fund: Permanent tax on coal produced and sold domestically to support miners w/ Black Lung Disease.
Environmental and Climate Justice Data Collection: $32.5M
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund: $15B
Neighborhood Access and Equity Grants: $1.1B
Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants: $2.8B
Weaknesses
Low-Emissions Electricity Program: $17M
Tribal Energy Loan Guarantees: $45M, Can be used on fossil fuel projects like pipelines.
Home Electrification and Energy Efficiency Rebates & High Efficiency Electric Rebate Program: $9B, which will mostly benefit moderate income households.
Rural Electric Cooperative Loans: $9.7B, To improve rural electric systems, can be used for Carbon Capture and Storage projects.
Improving Energy Efficiency, Water Efficiency or Climate Resilience of Affordable Housing: $1B
Clean Electricity Production Credit: Can be obtained by fossil fuel combustion and gasification facilities to deploy Carbon Capture and Storage technologies.
Sustainable Aviation Fuels: Est $49M in tax credits
Forest Carbon Markets: $450M in competitive grants to encourage “underserved forest landowners” to participate in carbon markets through the implementation of climate mitigation strategies or forest resilience strategies that can then be attributed as carbon sequestration and storage. These payments encourage the proliferation of carbon markets. Payments should be direct and unrelated to carbon markets instead.
Rural Energy for America Program: $1.177B to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy development for agricultural producers and rural small businesses. The program's definition of renewable energies include: Biomass, hydroelectrics (not specific on scale), or Green Hydrogen (derived from renewables, hydroelectrics, or biomass).
Agriculture: $26.8B total, While increased funding for Agriculture conservation practices is positive, the bill prioritizes practices like carbon capture and sequestration. This helps promote carbon markets, and induces food insecurity because growers will be paid for their data and not the crops they grow.
Threats
Clean Vehicle credits: Est $12B, locking in dependence on private transportation. (Not the most extreme threat, but still missing the mark. Like there should be tax credits for people who don’t own a car)
Extension and Modification of Credit for Carbon Oxide Sequestration: $3.32B to subsidized polluters in deploying Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilization technologies, which can be used for Enhanced Oil Recovery to pump more oil out of the ground. The IRA would increase deployment of CCS technology by 13 times deployment under current policy.[2] This includes CCS at fossil fuel plants.
Zero-Emission Nuclear Power Production Credit: $30B in corporate subsidies to dangerous nuclear power plants.
Hydrogen: $13.166B Hydrogen Production Tax Credit. Hydrogen is a false climate solution which contributes to pollution and enables the use of fossil fuel infrastructure in frontline communities. Hydrogen tax credits under the IRA would triple investment in hydrogen deployment by 2030[3].
Fossil Fuels: The IRA includes multiple provisions that increase fossil fuel production. (It’s a big section on the page, be sure to check it out)
Biofuels: Continued investments in biofuels which detract from needed food production and enable harmful industrial agricultural practices, $500M for competitive grants, and extension of tax credits for biofuels for an additional three years.
Extension of Nonbusiness Energy Property Tax Credits to 2032: These tax credits for individual households include credits for fossil fuel appliances such as natural gas, propane and oil water heaters.
Along with these basics, according to Patricia Mohr in Financial Post, EV sales may drop in 2023 as “few vehicles assembled in the U.S. or across North America are likely to qualify for the tax credit in 2023.” This tax credit (up to $7,500) only applies to U.S. sourced battery components, although Indonesia and Argentina are the leading producers of materials like lithium and nickel.
EVs that will no longer receive these tax credits include: the Hummer EV, Lucid Air, Tesla Model S and Model X, BMW i4, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, and Toyota bZ4X. (Yahoo! News) Though there is a tax credit on the purchase of used EVs (up to $4,000), but good luck finding an affordable one! :/
Let’s talk nuclear ☢
Or listen to, thanks to How to Save a Planet Episode 4: Should We Go Nuclear?
As a brief summary, building nuclear energy plants are costly and inefficient, and can cause problems with their radioactive waste. However, the ones that exist today are well managed, and tearing down preexisting plants would cause more harm. Instead, let’s just not build anymore.
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency
As mentioned in the episode, the process of creating nuclear energy is known as nuclear fission, which is illustrated above.
Check out…
Composting for Absolute Beginners - Dwell Absolutely loved this, even as an intermediate composter I learned a lot! For example, I didn’t realize I should be adding water along with my scraps, and only need to turn the pile every 4-5 weeks!
Climate fixes are all aimed at property owners. What about renters? - Vox Another great read, even from my position! Definitely check PowerMarket to see if you are eligible for community solar, and see if you can adopt any of the strategies mentioned into your life.
Experts warn of high levels of chemicals in clothes by some fast-fashion retailers - CBC Canada An old article brought to my attention by Twitter. We should all definitely try to avoid fast fashion period (whether new or secondhand)!
The Earth spun faster than usual on June 29 - CNBC By faster, Earth’s rotation was 1.59 milliseconds faster, making June 29 the shortest day on record since accurate time measurements were introduced in the ‘60s. This is news amidst days also mysteriously becoming longer, although reasons are unknown.
Good climate news <3
1st Sea Turtle Nest Found on Mississippi Beach Since 2018 - U.S. News
“After all the environmental disasters we’ve had, this is a good sign. When (turtle populations) have gone down, it means the ecosystem that supports them is having difficulty. When animals start breeding, it means things have started to get better,” said Moby Solangi, president of the marine studies group.
What a rebound from our little friends, great job guys!
What to know about the new Massachusetts climate law - New England Public Media The “Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind” bill was just signed into law on Friday, 8/12. This bill will invest in the offshore wind industry, will close several solar “loopholes,” (and increase solar power compensation for homeowners from 10 kW to 25), will catalog energy storage and add more storage capacity to the grid, increase EV rebates + chargers, expand access to EVs, will require the MBTA to be zero-emissions vehicles by 2030, allow 10 cities to ban fossil fuels, and much more!
California sets most ambitious offshore wind target in the US - Protocol
An aggressive goal of deploying 25 gigawatts by 2045, enough to power 25 million homes or 62.5% of California’s population, would make California the leader in offshore wind development!
Wrap-up
Wow, talk about a knowledge b*mb! Please share this with anyone + everyone, because I think just about every single person could benefit from this issue’s info. Oh, and stay optimistic, see you next week!
