Climate: Republicans vs. clean energy tax credits
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Republicans vs. clean energy tax credits
Climate activists and business leaders were watching to see if Republicans in the Senate would step up and support the clean energy industry. But when the Senate Finance Committee unveiled its draft of a sprawling domestic policy bill on Monday, it all but did away with most of the tax breaks for wind and solar power, electric vehicles and other clean energy solutions that were passed during the Biden administration. As a result, Lisa Friedman and Brad Plumer report, it appears that the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the largest federal law designed to address climate change, will effectively be neutered. Mike Carr, executive director of the Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition, said the draft legislation "undermines long-term American energy and economic security and presents a tremendous step backward" for companies looking to move solar power production back to the United States. "This bill would endanger hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs and take food out of the mouths of millions of children," Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the leading Democrat on the finance committee, said. Republican environmentalists also lamented the outcome. "If enacted, Americans will pay more for energy, businesses will cancel key energy projects and our nation will fall behind in the global energy race," said Heather Reams, president of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, a conservative environmental group. The fightIt wasn't for a lack of trying by the I.R.A.'s supporters. For months now, a diverse coalition has lobbied Congress in hopes of preserving the clean energy tax credits that had unleashed an American manufacturing boom. Tiernan Sittenfeld, senior vice president of government affairs for the League of Conservation Voters, said her organization had been working closely with Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, to rally support for the tax credits and make the case to Senate Republicans that while renewable energy is often vilified by President Trump, the jobs it creates are popular in Republican-led and Democratic-led states alike. "We went from having been in the fight of our lives to pass the biggest ever investment in climate and clean energy and environmental justice, to defending the biggest investment the world has ever seen in climate action," she said. A group of House Republicans had also worked to try and moderate the damage, joining forces with business groups, Democratic lawmakers and climate activists. These unlikely bedfellows were fighting for what they saw as a generational economic windfall. Since the Inflation Reduction Act was enacted in 2022, companies have announced more than $841 billion in new clean energy investments, with a vast majority of that money flowing to Republican districts. In the end, though, the draft legislation that emerged from the Senate Finance Committee contained very little support for clean energy. Tax incentives for nuclear reactors, geothermal plants, hydropower dams or battery storage would be preserved through 2033, but other credits — including those for electric vehicles, wind farms, solar installations and batteries — would be rapidly phased out. If enacted in anything like its current form, it will represent a rapid turnaround. Less than three years after President Biden signed into law the most ambitious federal effort to try and address climate change, President Trump and his allies in Congress have all but wiped it away.
WILDLIFE Pangolins should receive endangered protections, U.S. officials sayPangolins — strangely adorable, scale-covered creatures believed to be the most heavily trafficked mammal in the world — should receive protection under the Endangered Species Act, federal officials said Monday. The animals are native to Africa and Asia, but the Endangered Species Act requires the U.S. government to protect endangered species whether they live in the United States or abroad. The proposal to bring pangolins under U.S. protection comes in response to years-old legal action by conservationists, and in spite of recent moves under President Trump to weaken the Endangered Species Act and other environmental policies. For foreign animals, Endangered Species Act benefits include prohibitions on import and export, and on hunting and commercial activity. Protection can also open the door to financial assistance to develop and manage conservation programs in the species' native countries. — Catrin Einhorn Q&A 'Cloud Warriors' makes the case for meteorologistsHurricane season is here, and the weathermen are worried. It's not just the threat of severe storms, which are being made worse by climate change. A new, more urgent threat, they say, is the Trump administration's recent cuts to the National Weather Service, which provides the raw data that is used to make forecasts. One well-known TV forecaster in Florida recently said he was not sure he could do his job anymore, warning viewers that he was "flying blind." In "Cloud Warriors," a new book out this month, the journalist Thomas E. Weber explains in detail why that should worry us all. Weather forecasting has come a long way in recent years — improved radar technology, artificial intelligence and more powerful computers have all helped. As a result, skilled meteorologists are now able to make more accurate forecasts and help keep people and property out of harm's way. But Weber worries that cuts to the nation's weather infrastructure might change all that. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. — David Gelles What do you want people to understand about weather forecasting? Good weather forecasting matters to everybody in their daily life — for safety, for the economy. The stakes just keep getting higher as we see climate change contributing to certain types of extreme weather. A good weather forecast is valuable when you're having heat domes in the Pacific Northwest and wildfires in Brooklyn. What can we say with authority about how man-made global warming is actually changing weather across the world? With warmer water and warm, moist air, we're seeing hurricanes becoming more destructive. The impact on wildfires is enormous. It's just impossible to escape. What are we seeing already in terms of the effects these cuts are having on the nation's ability to accurately forecast the weather? And what do you anticipate coming given what we're seeing right now? I'm very concerned about the cuts to the Weather Forecast Offices around the country. They issue forecasts with local knowledge of quirks of geography and regional climate that the computer models don't always capture. Even less appreciated by most people is a lot of unseen work these local offices do to interface with local officials, emergency management officials, first responders, hospitals, school superintendents and companies with big work forces in the area. What's your response to the argument that artificial intelligence will be able to replace humans when it comes to weather forecasting? Computer advances are freeing up a little head space for humans to focus more on communicating what forecasts mean and what people need to do about it. That's a really key element of protecting people from weather dangers, especially in extreme weather. But thinking the computer will just issue the tornado warning is absolutely absurd. I would be terrified to get in an airplane if air traffic control was being completely handled by A.I., and similarly, I would be terrified in a weather danger situation to have a warning that's being decided on by a machine-learning algorithm rather than a human. More climate news from around the web:
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