We did it, y'all. I'm grateful to the many advocates whose years-long hustle birthed this moment of hope for humanity.
To the organizers of teach-ins, builders of coalitions, writers of op-eds, crafters of strategy:
Thank you for moving the ground beneath policymakers' feet. ๐งต
Didn't want to read the 725 pages of the Manchin-Schumer bill last night?
I gotchu. Here's a detailed summary that lists the dollar amount for each of the billโs 100+ climate & energy provisions. Grouped by sector, w/ text citations:
Friends, I have a new job at the White House.
I've started as a Special Assistant to the President, helping build climate & industrial policies that support hard-hit communities.
Can't wait to work with y'all from the new post to help deliver wins for climate, jobs, & justice.
The Manchin-Schumer reconciliation bill PERMANENTLY extends funding for the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. The House version included just 4 years of funding.
Big win for coal miners, their families, and their communities.
New study in today's
@nytimes
: IRA changes the game for wind & solar
Clean energy companies now face an airtight business case to use US-made parts & pay workers fair wages.
4 big takeaways in ๐งต
Study by
@JesseJenkins
&
@ErinNMayfield
, h/t
@BGAlliance
Want a map of all US factories making the nuts & bolts of clean energy?
Behold: every facility making solar, wind, battery, grid, & efficient building components.
Communities nationwide stand to gain from IRA $ to manufacture our clean energy future. ๐งต
How many jobs will the Inflation Reduction Act create? Our new analysis has the answer:
The bill's climate & energy investments will create more than 9 million good jobs over the next decadeโan avg of nearly 1 million jobs each year.
Jobs Factsheet:
After nearly 7 years
@SierraClub
, today is my last day as Living Economy Director.
I founded the program to fight alongside y'all for climate, jobs, & justice.
I'll be doing the same as I head to BlueGreen Alliance to take on a new role as VP of Industrial Policy.
The new Build Back Better bill spans over 1,600 pages.
But maybe you'd prefer a simple spreadsheet.
Here's my compilation of the bill's nearly 100 climate and environmental justice investments. Wonk out.
In a couple of hours, the House will pass the
#BuildBackBetter
Act.
Here are 34 real-world benefits that communities will gain from the historic bill:
Replacing lead pipes for 5 million families, clean air for 60k school buses' worth of children, etc.
Want a spreadsheet synopsis of the 100+ energy & climate investments in the new Manchin-Schumer bill?
Here you go. This offers a side-by-side comparison of the new bill, the House-passed bill, & prior versions we've all worked on since time immemorial:
1. For the first time ever, U.S.-made wind & solar components will be cheaper than imports - a boon for clean energy manufacturing.
E.g., solar modules with 100% U.S.-made parts will be >30% cheaper than imports.
This holds for every segment of the wind & solar supply chains.
To those who say "something is better than nothing":
If your house was on fire, and firefighters delivered 6% of the water needed to put it out, would you call it "progress?"
As the House votes today on the
#InflationReductionAct
, here's a thread on what the bill means for clean manufacturing.
The bill invests $50+ billion to manufacture the nuts & bolts of the clean economy while cutting industrial emissions. Could this revitalize manufacturing? ๐งต
That's right. We're saying:
Yes to climate action
Yes to unionized clean energy jobs
Yes to racial justice investments
Yes to health protections
Yes to the care workforce
Yes to Build Back Better
By saying no to a premature vote that threatens all of the above.
@SierraClub
These cost savings come from a single IRA provision: the 45X manufacturing tax credit.
The resulting growth in U.S. solar & wind manufacturing will help us build the cleaner, fairer, & more reliable industrial base we need for our clean energy future.
2. It now pays to pay clean energy workers well.
Wind & solar developers can slash costs by meeting prevailing wage & apprenticeship criteria for IRA's clean energy tax credits.
Solar and onshore wind developers who meet these labor standards will cut costs by >60%.
It's absurd that we have to say this: Fossil fuel buses are not clean buses.
While we're talking on this level: sawdust is not food, wasps are not cuddly, and fire is not cold.
Hope that clarifies things.
Offshore wind developers will cut costs by about 20% if they offer workers fair pay & career pathways.
By pairing labor standards with clean energy deployment for the first time, IRA changes the math.
It offers a no-brainer business case to do right by workers.
And if you'd like the spreadsheet version of this synopsis, here you go.
This offers a side-by-side comparison of the new bill, the House-passed bill, & prior versions we've all worked on since time immemorial:
3. We're poised to create millions of good wind & solar jobs.
IRA's tax credits will create demand for >4 million additional wind/solar jobs by 2035.
That's 5x as many solar jobs & twice as many wind jobs as we'd have without IRA.
Want a line-by-line breakdown of today's
#BuildBackBetter
package and the jobs it could create?
Here's a sheet I made in the wee hours, detailing the $$, the jobs, and how they compare with the
#THRIVEAct
- a bold plan backed by a movement of movements.
Healthy homes for residents of public housing. Replacing lead pipes. Creating high-paying jobs. Slashing climate pollution. Housing justice meets climate justice in today's
#GreenNewDeal
for public housing.
@AOC
@SenSanders
@SierraClub
Many of us are pushing for Inflation Reduction Act funds to go to hard-hit communities.
The opportunity we face, though, is to rebalance not just funding, but power.
I see 5 ways community groups can use IRA as agents of economic change, not passive recipients of funds. ๐งต
4. New solar panels & wind turbines will trigger a surge in demand for aluminum, steel, & cement.
Solar panels are about 85% aluminum. By 2035, aluminum demand from U.S. solar power ALONE will well exceed today's TOTAL U.S. aluminum production, due to IRA-fueled solar growth.
New map: 3 hard-hit communities that could benefit if we use IRA, BIL, & CHIPS $$$ to redress longstanding injustices.
-Justice40 communities
-Coal communities
-Deindustrialized communities
We face a rare opportunity to reverse decades of divestment. ๐งต
Here's the breakdown of the >4M jobs:
Solar: 3.7M jobs, 2/3 in manufacturing & 1/3 in deployment
Wind: 0.4M jobs, 1/2 in both manufacturing & deployment
We now have a real opportunity to attach clean energy growth to high-paying jobs & detach it from forced labor overseas.
In sum, IRA transforms the economics of HOW we build our clean energy economy.
We now have a path to build it on a foundation of good jobs, clean manufacturing, reliable supply chains, & greater equity.
It has always been the right path. Now itโs also the most economical path.
Investments to slash industrial emissions INCREASED in the Manchin-Schumer reconciliation bill - from $4B to nearly $6B
Significant win for cutting pollution and supporting good jobs at steel, aluminum, cement, & other emissions-intensive manufacturing facilities
Tomorrow, the Inflation Reduction Act turns 1 year old.
The same mix of cross-movement advocates & policymakers who won passage have spent the past year tying labor, equity, & enviro standards to the $$$.
But a recent bevy of observers suggest we're trying to do too much. ๐งต
We now have $ amounts for the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Here's an updated spreadsheet with the bill's 100+ energy & climate investments.
It offers a side-by-side comparison of the bill & the umpteen prior versions we've all worked on:
Steel & cement demand for wind/solar power also could grow 2x-3x by 2035.
To meet clean energy's rising demand for materials, we can't rely on emissions-intensive imports.
Instead, IRA invests in clean U.S. manufacturing of the materials forming the backbone of clean energy.
Check out NYT's synopsis of the study's findings on the new math for clean energy, courtesy of IRA.
@lydiadepillis
spotlights the data-backed hope & challenges of building a clean economy. With takes from
@TreasuryDepSec
,
@micarrdc
,
@toddntucker
, & me.
The bill formerly known as Build Back Better has a pulse again, thanks to tireless advocacy.
What lies ahead in our quest for a livable climate and homegrown energy independence?
I offer some ideas in a new
@DemJournal
piece. For the TL;DR, here's a ๐งต
The bipartisan infrastructure deal would replace just 4% of diesel school buses with clean EVs.
But Dems can electrify ALL school buses with mere decimal dust - by nudging their bigger infrastructure deal from $3.5T to $3.56T.
Isn't clean air worth that decimal? We can do this.
In its first few months, the IRA has spurred a wave of manufacturing announcements that'll create 100k jobs in 31 states to make the nuts & bolts of clean energy.
But some say such public funds try to do too much by pursuing climate, jobs, & justice goals at the same time. ๐งต
The history of the
#InflationReductionAct
has not yet been written.
Will the ~$400B in climate funding redress or reinforce structural injustices?
Will it repeat the New Deal's mistakes by excluding communities of color & hard-hit workers?
That depends on what we do next. ๐งต
A few takeaways from today's rollercoaster:
1. We have a fighting chance to win the largest ever investments in climate, jobs, and justice.
2. Organizing delivers the goods - whether in the streets or the halls of Congress.
3. Don't mess with
@USProgressives
.
The bill includes more than 130 programs that add up to an unprecedented, nearly $600 billion investment in climate action, clean energy jobs, and environmental justice.
You can see them all, in spreadsheet form, here:
@drvolts
@JesseJenkins
Did
@JesseJenkins
account for the GHG emissions that will result from the raft of children born to climate advocates about 9 months from now?
I know it's not victory lap time. We've still got to land this bill in the history books.
But I'll pause for some gratitude.
When we started pre-pandemic, fighting for 2+ years wasn't Plan A. But you couldn't find a more tenacious crew to share a trench with. Let's win, y'all.
Welcome to the week before the week we pass the Build Back Better Act in the House.
Thanks to
@USProgressives
, the 5 Dem holdouts pledged to vote YES next week without cutting a single $ from the historic suite of investments.
What ensures that they keep their word? All of us.
Among the many things to like in the current infrastructure plan, we also have critical gaps to fill.
The current deal could leave 98% of lead pipes intact.
And 96% of school buses would keep spewing toxic air pollution instead of going electric.
We can do better. We must. ๐งต
Thank you to the 13 members of Congress who just spoke at our event to act boldly on infrastructure.
House leaders are fighting to deliver bigger investments - as big as the crises we face.
As they spoke, smoke from western wildfires crept across the DC sky. Big crises indeed.
New: The Manchin-Schumer reconciliation bill EXPANDS the manufacturing production tax credit, now making it available for manufacturing batteries, in addition to wind/solar.
This could boost U.S. manufacturing of EV batteries and build more reliable clean energy supply chains.
The bipartisan infrastructure deal would leave 3 out of 4 lead pipes intact.
But Dems can replace 100% of lead pipes with mere decimal dust - by moving the topline of their bigger infrastructure deal from $3.5T to $3.54T.
Isn't clean water worth that decimal? We can do this.
When I was 3 years old in WV, a flash flood filled our house with water at 1am. 38 people died & 13k homes were ruined statewide.
WV faces the nation's highest flood risk due to climate change.
@Sen_JoeManchin
: Supporting WV = supporting climate action.
Few bills this century have come close to such sweeping potential for good job creation.
It's true this bill has good, bad, & ugly bits. Also true: It's an unparalleled opportunity for hard-hit workers and communities to reap the economic gains of climate action.
.
@USProgressives
for the win!
Let the history books show that
@RepJayapal
, dozens of congressional champs, their hard-working staff, & a small army of advocates across movements came together to keep the path open to
#BuildBackBetter
.
We live to fight another day.
#HoldTheLine
One caveat: We donโt yet have $ estimates for the tax credits, as weโre awaiting an official score for those.
So some of the numbers are incomplete, as noted. Iโll fill in the tax credit amounts once we have them.
Hope it's a useful guide for this long-sought, historic text.
The Keystone XL company now wants to use NAFTA to extract $15 billion for cancelling its toxic pipeline.
That'd mean taking $100 from each taxpayer for protecting our water &
#climate
.
We need to rewrite old
#trade
deals that put polluters over people.
While navigating the Build Back Better Act's political labyrinth, one can lose sight of what we're fighting for.
This new factsheet names 34 real-world benefits that communities will see when we win the bill's historic climate investments. โฌ๏ธ
E.g.,:๐งต
The bipartisan infrastructure deal is NOT a climate deal. It'd mean a 1% blip in climate pollution.
Going to
#COP26
with the bipartisan deal is like going to a potluck with a saltine cracker.
Congress must move the climate $$ in Build Back Better alongside the bipartisan deal.
Why should the Senate pass
#BuildBackBetter
now? So that:
-5 million families can replace toxic lead pipes
-60k school busesโ worth of children can breathe cleaner air
-150k workers can get good jobs manufacturing clean energy goods
-Our children can hope for a livable climate
Hungry for bagels and/or industrial policy?
Here's my pitch on why a win-win strategy for climate, jobs, & justice goals is the "everything bagel" we deserve.
The data don't support
@ezraklein
's critique of IRA's pairing of clean energy & good jobs.
.
@dwallacewells
offers some good insights in this postmortem for neoliberalism.
But I wouldn't describe the current, hard-fought inflection point as an "ideological vacuum."
More like a contest of ideas for what comes next. We have no lack of ideas. I'll offer a few examples.๐งต
Somewhat suddenly, the United States has disowned what had been, for at least a generation, its governing ideology both at home and abroad. But "the end of neoliberalism" has left behind a strange ideological vacuum defined mostly by self-interest. (1/x)
Republicans just sent a clear message:
We will not
#BuildBackBetter
by trying to appease politicians who negotiate away our wellbeing.
Zero $ for energy, buildings, care, lands, manufacturing, or workforce
Paltry $ for EVs, rail, and resilience
This is a non-starter.
One takeaway from the SVB collapse: We need a public climate bank.
We need a stable source of low-cost financing for new climate tech & community clean energy, backed by the faith & credit of the gov't.
And the IRA offers $27B that could help create public climate banks...
๐จ๐๐ฅNEW: The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is a HUGE deal for the climate space.
#SVB
was a major holder of climate tech deposits and a ginormous lender to community solar. ๐งต
I'm now fully in the saddle
@BGAlliance
as VP for Industrial Policy.
Hit me up if you want to swap ideas for bold policies to unite unions pushing for clean manufacturing jobs, enviros fighting for climate action, & fenceline communities demanding justice.
Specifically, ๐งตโฌ๏ธ
What to do when your political opponents unveil a popular
#GreenNewDeal
plan to tackle climate change, inequity, and job creation?
Options:
1. Create your own plan.
2. Get the Koch Brothers to fund a bogus study.
Surprise!
@SenateGOP
went with
#2
.
@SierraClub
@sunrisemvmt
When this thing is done, I'm going to write an alternate history in which Senator Byrd opted not to write a rule...and we delivered a once-in-a-generation win while also sleeping at night.
I am indebted to bell hooks for demystifying love.
For offering a vision of love so clear and holistic that it is equally apt as a guide for partnership, community, and our fight for justice.
May we all continue learning from her.
Hats off to the Biden admin for using DPA today.
More solar / heat pump / grid manufacturing =
-MORE union jobs & affordable clean energy
-LESS worker exploitation in vulnerable supply chains
Now let's pair this w/ labor standards & yank the DPA lever for other clean sectors.
Today,
@POTUS
will sign executive actions authorizing use of the Defense Production Act for solar, heat pumps, and other key U.S. clean-tech manufacturing capabilities needed to strengthen our clean energy arsenal โ
(1/
No sugar-coating: Much has been lost in our tussle over this bill for the past 2+ years.
Investments went from $10T (our movement-backed THRIVE plan), to $3.5T (BBB Act), to $0.4T (IRA).
We had to fight for every $. Behind the forsaken dollars are lives & livelihoods. But...
How? In part, by democratizing access to info.
On-the-ground groups need the details to directly advocate for equitable rules that benefit the hard-hit communities they represent.
To that end,
@BGAlliance
has just released a deep-dive IRA "user guide":
And if you'd like a doc version of this summary, here you go.
This lists the dollar amount for each of the 725-page billโs climate & energy provisions. Grouped by sector, w/ text citations:
This hard-fought, new $6 billion program is a game-changer for cutting climate pollution from steel, aluminum, & cement -- materials that form the backbone of our economy.
Done right, it'll also support good union jobs, clean air, & tangible benefits for hard-hit communities.
The heavy industrial sector โ such as iron, steel, and cement โ contributes nearly 1/3 of U.S. CO2 emissions. We announced $6B for widespread demonstration + deployment of decarbonization projects within these industries.
Application deadline: 8/4/23 ๐
What's that? You'd like a wonky breakdown of the just-passed Senate infrastructure plan vs. what movement groups have been pushing for?
This spreadsheet shows $ amounts for 50+ climate/jobs/justice priorities we're fighting to win in a final package:
.
@CNN
: climate and trade are separate.
Nope, wrong. A
#USMCA
deal that helps corporations export pollution and expand fossil fuels is a climate failure.
Here are 7 ways that Trump's
#NAFTA
2.0 fails our climate and communities.
#DemDebate
@SierraClub
And to fill the biggest gaps in our clean energy supply chains.
Here's a new spreadsheet that quantifies U.S. manufacturing capacity for clean energy widgets.
It reveals big gaps. We make very few parts for solar cells, battery cells, transformers, etc.
With the $ we got, we have a fighting shot at a livable climate, over 9M good jobs, and a chance to redress structural injustices.
We also gain better footing to keep fighting for the full suite of investments our communities need. Here are the receipts:
Want a
#GreenNewDeal
? Then we need Congress to reject Trump's pro-polluter
#NAFTA
deal.
GND: tackle climate change, fight inequity, create good jobs
NAFTA 2.0: climate denial, handouts to corporate polluters, job outsourcing
New factsheet:
5 House Dems: We want BBB Act to be fully paid for.
Everyone else: OK, it's actually more than paid for.
5 House Dems: We want our bipartisan deal.
Everyone else: OK, let's do both.
5 House Dems: We want a pony...
One caveat: We donโt yet have $ estimates for the tax credits, as weโre awaiting an official score for those.
So some of the numbers are incomplete, as noted. Iโll fill in the tax credit amounts once we have them.
Hope it's a useful guide for this long-sought, historic text.
But why boost clean energy manufacturing when we can just import stuff?
5 reasons:
1. Human rights: Children in Congo mine cobalt for EV batteries. Coerced workers in China make solar components. The clean energy economy can't be built on the backs of exploited workers abroad.
The bill also has giveaways to polluters that threaten frontline communities who are damn tired of being treated as sacrifice zones.
To halt these threats, we'll need a showdown in the courts & the streets. No matter your take on the bill, we need to show up for that showdown.
Trump gets trade completely wrong. NAFTA is not about the U.S. vs. Mexico. It's about corporations vs. the rest of us. Check out out this new video from
@SenSanders
.
#ReplaceNAFTA
At the White House today with just a fraction of the advocates, staffers, and organizers nationwide who gave us a fighting shot at a livable climate, good jobs, and a more just economy.
After years of work, we did it y'all. Now, on to the next fight.
To onshore clean energy manufacturing, the bill has:
-$40B in tax credits for manufacturing solar, wind, batteries, other clean tech
-$500M for the DPA, which the Biden admin is using to manufacture heat pumps, etc.
-Incentives for solar/wind/EV firms to use U.S.-made parts
It's BFD Day, friends.
5 years ago, our climate investment ideas were fanciful. Today, many become law.
Props to our movement family that made it so. May we see both the wins & the losses, recognize our own power in delivering the wins, & use that as fuel for the fights ahead.
We did it, y'all. I'm grateful to the many advocates whose years-long hustle birthed this moment of hope for humanity.
To the organizers of teach-ins, builders of coalitions, writers of op-eds, crafters of strategy:
Thank you for moving the ground beneath policymakers' feet. ๐งต