No surprise, most of the buzz this week is about the IRA bill which includes a lot of pro-climate legislation.
1. ‘Holy s--t’: Surprise Senate deal sets stage for record climate change package
by Zack Colman, Josh Siegel and Kelsey Tamborrino of POLITICO
"Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin salvaged a deal on Wednesday for a bill that includes the biggest climate spending package in U.S. history, devoting hundreds of billions of dollars to clean energy technologies.
...
People familiar with the effort to bring Manchin back to the table on climate said there had been an intensive effort to convince him of the merits of supporting the new technologies — including from company executives who came forward with new plans to build manufacturing in West Virginia."
By Bill McKibben, The Crucial Years
"The pushback against his decision two weeks ago to blow up the deal was harsh—clearly harsher than Manchin expected. Within hours he was trying to make the case that he hadn’t actually walked away from negotiations. His fellow Senators stopped playing nice and made it clear they had no use for him. And the president seemed to understand he had to hit back: hence his increasingly clear talk of a climate emergency. But most of all it was, I think, the widespread public scorn. Somehow it began to break through to Manchin that the only thing history would ever remember about him is that he blocked action on the worst crisis humans have ever faced."
Editor's note: We must be cautious about the kind of information we are share and how we build the zeitgeist. A zeitgeist of doom does not a positive movement make. Some amount of cautious warnings are positive, but too much fear leads to inaction. (One study which shows this.)
3. Speaking of not understanding the forest for the trees... (For more on how hyping the Y2K bug was a massive success to "beating" it: You're Wrong About -- The Y2K Bug)
Take home: good public outreach and a "zeitgeist matters" approach can make change.
By USDA Press Office
"With new resources made available through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, combined with support from state, local, and Tribal governments as well as other partners, the Forest Service aims to eliminate the backlog over the next 10 years and develop the infrastructure, such as nurseries, to keep up with increasing needs."
5. A Green Hydrogen Economy Depends on This Little-Known Machine
By David R Baker from Bloomberg Green|Clean Tech
Learn more about "the electrolyzer" and how it's releasing no greenhouse gases. A true feat.
