5 takeaways from Biden's tariff hikes on Chinese electric vehicles
"Biden wants to cut emissions in a specific way, which is why EVs and other clean industries are getting both giant subsidies and protectionist tariffs. He wants a U.S.-based green energy supply chain — from raw materials all the way to finished products — with American jobs, preferably union jobs, at every step."
"Most of the funding, $621 million, will go toward 36 projects aimed at bolstering the resilience of existing infrastructure through things like improving draining, moving roadways, and lifting up bridges.
An additional $119 million will go toward protecting, strengthening, or removing at-risk coastal infrastructure like highways."
"President Joe Biden celebrates Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in grants for #ResidentialSolar projects that will power nearly a million low-income households.
Residential #solar is difficult to access for lower-income Americans because of its high upfront cost and because less affluent people tend to rent their homes or live in apartment buildings.
Biden's goal: to direct 40% of federal clean energy investment benefits to disadvantaged communities."
Consumers can access up to $14,000 or more per household. Many will likely be able to start accessing rebates within months.
The rebates aim to partially or fully offset costs for efficiency projects like installing electric heat pumps, insulation, electrical panels and Energy Star-rated appliances."
Biden did a lot for the climate, much of it unsung.
"Few Americans say they've heard a lot about what the administration has done on #ClimateChange. That extends to those in the president's own party and to those who rate the issue of climate change as very important. Half of them have heard little or nothing at all about what the administration has done."
"The money for the solar panels will flow through Environmental Protection Agency's Solar for All grant competition, which was part of Biden's landmark climate change law dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act. The law is expected to create 200,000 jobs and save households in the program about $400 a year, the White House said."
Americans want climate action at the government level. That action has started under Biden. But:
"Half of Americans have heard not much or nothing about what the Biden administration has done about #ClimateChange. Only 14% say they've heard a lot."
“With the industrial decarbonization program” — a $10 billion set of awards to more than 130 companies, funded with $6 billion of IRA money — “the number that DOE is touting isn’t $6 billion. It’s $20 billion, because all the projects require cost sharing.”
“The industrial decarbonization programs are first-of-a-kind inroads into a sector that has traditionally been called hard to abate.”
The #Biden administration issued new minimum #EnergyStandards for homes built with federal dollars.
A bundle of #BuildingCodes that set efficiency targets for insulation,windows, HVAC and other systems, the updated energy standards apply only to new #AffordableHousing construction built with federal financing or funding.
All told, the average annual savings work out to $963 per household."
"In one of its biggest steps yet to keep #FossilFuels in the ground, the Biden administration announced Thursday that it will end new coal leasing in the #PowderRiverBasin, which produces nearly half the coal in the United States.
The bureau determined that no future coal leasing should happen in the basin, and it estimated that coal mining in the #Wyoming portion of the region would end by 2041."
"At least 305 major #CleanEnergy projects have been announced in 40 states and Puerto Rico since the IRA passed, Timberlake said, totalling more than $123 billion in capital investments. The Midwest, he added, has received about a quarter of those funds."