Build Back Something

Senate Democrats apparently outsmarted Mitch McConnell and agreed on an "Inflation Reduction Act" that includes $369 billion in clean energy investments. While Senator Brian Schatz calls it the "biggest climate action in human history", it's been criticized as a "climate suicide pact" by Brett Hartl with the Center for Biological Diversity for requiring new oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico and in Alaska.

It’s self-defeating to handcuff renewable energy development to massive new oil and gas extraction. The new leasing required in this bill will fan the flames of the climate disasters torching our country, and it’s a slap in the face to the communities fighting to protect themselves from filthy fossil fuels.

We can’t let the renewable energy transition be held hostage by fossil fuel companies. The Manchin bill is a devil’s bargain that ignores science and locks us into at least a decade of new oil and gas extraction. There’s a way forward that doesn’t spew more greenhouse gas pollution into the air and harm frontline communities, and it means eliminating these giveaways to the fossil-fuel industry.

This legislation may be a mixed bag and it's already greatly scaled back from initial proposals. Is there the political will to do more? Anthony DiMaggio has conducted polls of people who have experienced extreme weather events.

[M]y survey findings should provide environmental activists some encouragement. They suggest that the public is increasingly waking up to the severity of the threat at hand. People's real-life experiences with extreme weather are acting as a catalyst driving support for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and will likely fuel rising support for action in the future as the climate crisis worsens.

Writing about record high temperatures in England, George Monbiot wonders if we can "reach the social tipping point before we hit the environmental tipping point" given that we know what really needs to be done.

Let’s stop lying to ourselves and others by pretending that small measures deliver major change. Let’s abandon the timidity and tokenism. Let’s stop bringing buckets of water when only fire engines will do.

Update (August 1):  While proponents claim IRA will reduce emissions to 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 (estimated to be a 20 percent reduction in the absence of this bill), it seems the oil industry views the bill as a mixed bag as well. For example, they are all for the new oil and gas leasing, but concerned about the electric vehicle subsidies and the 15 percent minimum corporate tax. Perhaps this is what political compromise is all about. It's only the future of civilization at stake.

Update (August 2):  Julia Kane, Emily Pontecorvo, and Zoya Teirstein quote Adam Orford that IRA is an "overall positive", but

experts are concerned that the permitting legislation Democrats promised to pass in a few months could make it easier for companies to get fossil fuel infrastructure approved more quickly.

And, of course, it only takes one Democrat to torpedo the whole thing--even Manchin might not be above wrecking his own bill. 

Jake Johnson quotes Lauren Pagel.

The world is on fire and Congress is attacking it with a squirt gun while giving Senator Manchin and fossil fuel executives more matches by fast-tracking oil and gas drilling and hydrogen boondoggles. Drilling for oil and gas is no solution to the climate crisis.

Noah Berlatsky acknowledges a number of shortcomings in the bill. 

However, climate advocates in general see these concessions as a small price to pay for what is in other respects easily the most substantial effort to fight global warming in US history.

Update (August 4):  Food and Water Watch criticizes Manchin's "side deal".

Creating new wind and solar tax credits while giving fossil fuel polluters a green light is the ultimate devil’s bargain. Lawmakers must speak up strongly and swiftly against this massive rollback of public health and environmental protections that will fast track fossil fuel projects.

But who knows, maybe Senator Sinema will decide the rich need to keep their tax loophole and vote down the whole thing. (A short time later) Looks like Sinema got enough changes to vote in favor.

Update (August 7):  The Inflation Reduction Act passed the Senate 50 to 50 with Vice President Harris casting the tie-breaker vote.

Update (August 9):  Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was determined to get a bill passed.

I told my caucus all along, including the most pro-environmental people, that we’re going to have to swallow some bad stuff to get good stuff.

Update (August 12):  The Inflation Reduction Act passed the House of Representatives 220 to 207. Robert Hunziker notes the urgency of our situation.

The entire planet is reeling from global warming. America’s modest couple hundred billion climate plan is a drop in the world’s bucket.

Update (August 15):  The more I read about this law, the more problems it seems to have. Incentives for carbon capture account for one-sixth to one-fifth of projected emissions reductions. Prices per ton go up for both carbon capture with storage as well as capture for use in enhanced oil recovery (though up not as much). Storage would also require the construction of thousands of miles of pipeline.

In addition, it's possible many electric vehicles will be ineligible for incentives.

[IRA] requires that new electric vehicles meet stringent sourcing requirements for critical materials, the components of the battery, and final assembly to qualify for the tax credits. While some automakers, like Tesla and GM, have well-developed domestic supply chains, no electric vehicle manufacturer currently meets all the bill’s requirements.

Update (August 16):  As President Biden signs the bill into law, I'm glad that activists such as Lisa Frank are tempering celebration with a dose of reality.

[This law is] a start to, not the culmination of, our work to reduce global warming pollution and ensure clean air, clean water, and the preservation of open spaces.

And Representative Rashida Tlaib promises to work against the noxious "side deal" which requires a separate vote.

[H]andshake deals made by others in closed rooms do not dictate how I vote, and we sure as hell don't owe Joe Manchin anything now.

He and his fossil fuel donors already got far too much in the IRA.

Update (August 18):  Carl Pope offers three steps to follow up on IRA.

Recapture fugitive methane, amounting to more than a billion tons of carbon dioxide a year.

Leapfrog over 100 gigawatts of unneeded, polluting gas power plants. Replace coal-burning plants with more solar and wind instead.

Electrify cars and trucks, and make electric vehicles a cleaner and more reliable option in every zip code.

Update (September 9):  Progressives in Congress are pushing back against the Manchin "side deal". The plan is to include it in the continuing resolution that keeps the government funded past the end of the fiscal year.

Update (September 27):  Senator Manchin's "side deal" has been removed from the continuing resolution.

Update (October 6):  Liane Schalatek gives an overview of the IRA. And Basav Sen notes that the "side deal" isn't quite dead.