August 18, 2023 - WorldOra's Carbon News

MIT’s Technology Review- IRA and Climate Casey Crownhart 08/17/23 Excellent piece starts off with the prelude I agree with completely and then dives into a nicely broken down assessment of a year of action that we all know hasn’t even gotten up to speed yet!

“I don’t know if there’s a single conversation I’ve had about climate technology over the past year that didn’t reference the Inflation Reduction Act at least once.”

• In total, companies have announced over $76 billion in private investments in climate technology manufacturing since the IRA was signed into law.

• The rules lay out that consumers would only get the full $7,500 credit for a new EV if the vehicle is made from materials and batteries from the US (or free trade agreement partners). The rules attached to the credits were aimed at boosting US production of battery minerals, components, and cells.

• The emissions effects from the IRA’s policies are still mostly projections. We won’t know for a while exactly how well all this money translates into climate action. But early signs in manufacturing and EV uptake are very positive.

• This opinion piece from Jonas Nahm (now a senior economist for the Biden administration’s Council of Economic Advisers), published last November, lays out how the IRA ties climate action with economic success.

• My colleague James Temple took on the topic of carbon capture subsidies in the IRA. There was (and is) concern that investing in carbon capture could extend the life of fossil fuel plants. But James points out that the subsidies could be crucial in hard-to-decarbonize sectors like steel and cement.

• The US just invested over $1 billion in carbon removal. The funding is mostly going to two direct air capture hubs—one in Texas and the other in Louisiana.

Duke Experts Share Climate Considerations on the Farm BillLee Miller-“Agriculture is one of the only, perhaps the only, major emitting sectors that have at least the theoretical potential to be a net sink of greenhouse gas emissions… these are also systems that are really well suited to helping farmers adapt to climate change, to make to making their farms more resilient in the face of the droughts and floods and disease and heat stress.”