Climate 411

DOE announced its largest-ever investment in decarbonizing industry. Here’s how it addresses key challenges.

By Sonali Deshpande / Published: March 28, 2023

Photo Credit: Marcin Jozwiak for Pexels

This blog was co-authored by Natasha Vidangos, Senior Director, Climate Innovation and Technology.

Decarbonizing industry is a critical step to stabilize our climate. The sector can be tough to get a handle on — it’s on track to become the largest-emitting sector within the next couple of decades, and it involves the production of a wide variety of goods, from cement, steel, and chemicals to food and beverages. Historically, heavy industry is also a significant source of local pollution, often leading to direct harm to nearby communities, which tend to be communities of color. This complex yet critical piece of our economy needs a transformation — one that leverages cleaner and more efficient energy and processes while establishing mechanisms to ensure better outcomes on the ground. Identifying, developing and deploying transformative solutions is not an easy task: It requires innovative ideas, ambitious plans and investments, and coordination across a diverse set of stakeholders. Federal support is crucial for testing and validating these new technologies in a real-world setting, reducing the barriers to safe and effective adoption.

Also posted in Policy, Science / Comments are closed

New Inflation Reduction Act Tracker Launched by the Sabin Center and EDF

By EDF Blogs / Bio / Published: March 8, 2023

This piece was co-authored by EDF Clean Air Legal Fellow Richard Yates and Sabin Center for Climate Change Law Fellow Eleonor Dyan Garcia. It is also posted on the Sabin Center’s website.

The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and Environmental Defense Fund have just launched IRAtracker.org. This free online resource includes a searchable database that catalogues all of the climate change-related provisions in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as well as a tracker that records actions taken by federal agencies to implement those provisions.

Also posted in News, Partners for Change, Policy / Comments are closed

Making the most of our climate investments: 4 lessons learned from new research

By Chelcie Henry-Robertson / Published: January 31, 2023

Photo Credit: Canva

This blog was co-authored by Morgan Rote, Director, U.S. Climate.

In the last year, the U.S. secured historic investments from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and CHIPs and Science Act that position our country to drive transformational progress on emissions, energy security and jobs in clean energy and manufacturing. Getting those laws through Congress to President Biden’s desk was no easy feat — they’ve been decades in the making — and the next chapter may be just as challenging: implementing those clean energy and innovation investments swiftly and fairly across the nation.

To ensure these laws make the impact we need this decade, federal agencies like the Department of Energy need to design, build and evaluate programs that maximize this funding. Two reports commissioned by EDF offer valuable insights and recommendations on how to best design and evaluate clean energy and innovation programs.

Also posted in Cities and states, Energy, Policy / Read 1 Response

DOE has a big opportunity to decarbonize industry. Here’s how it can leverage a new program.

By Sonali Deshpande / Published: December 20, 2022

Photo Credit: Canva

This blog is the second of a series of analyses being developed by a coalition of NGOs engaged in decarbonization of the U.S. industrial sector. It focuses on investment priorities for $5.8 billion in funding for industrial decarbonization in the Advanced Industrial Facilities Deployment Program (AIFDP), passed by Congress as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. We and our partners will continue to update our blogs to references one another’s work. See the recent posts by ITIF, and NRDC+RMI.

The Inflation Reduction Act made a historic down payment on climate and clean energy progress across the economy, including new investments that take aim at a notoriously tough-to-decarbonize sector: industry. A key provision in this law is the $5.8 billion Advanced Industrial Facilities Deployment Program (AIFDP), which is intended to support early-stage demonstrations of technologies and processes that could cut emissions in the industrial sector. The Department of Energy now has the opportunity to design this program to maximize breakthroughs in technologies and benefit communities.

Also posted in Energy, Policy / Comments are closed

Minnesotans are ready for state lawmakers to take bold climate action

By Alex DeGolia / Twitter profile / Published: December 8, 2022

After the November election, Minnesota policymakers are now in the best position than they have ever been to take critical steps to put in place policies necessary to tackle climate change. In doing so, they have the opportunity to create good paying jobs, protect communities from harmful air pollution, and secure a safer future for all Minnesotans.

A recent poll, commissioned by EDF Action and conducted by Global Strategy Group, found broad support among majorities of Minnesotans for ambitious climate policies – including those that limit carbon pollution, encourage more use of clean energy, and reduce pollution from specific sectors such as transportation and agriculture. Majorities of Minnesota voters also want the Governor and state lawmakers to do more to support these and other climate policies.

As Minnesota lawmakers prepare for the upcoming legislative session in January, the results of this poll underscore how popular climate action is among the state’s voters. Here are five key polling results:

Also posted in Agriculture, Carbon Markets, Cities and states, Policy / Comments are closed

One year later: What’s next for the bipartisan infrastructure law’s historic investments in new climate tech?

By Chandler Green / Published: November 15, 2022

A year ago, President Biden signed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act into law, the largest investment in infrastructure since the New Deal.

Among the many key climate investments included, the infrastructure law put a long-awaited down payment on several new and promising climate solutions including carbon dioxide removal, hydrogen, long-term energy storage and technologies to support clean industry.

We spoke with Natasha Vidangos, Senior Director for Climate Innovation and Technology at Environmental Defense Fund, about what’s next for these investments and how they can help us tackle the climate crisis.

Also posted in Greenhouse Gas Emissions, News / Comments are closed