Climate Point: Sinema says yes to climate bill. Billions for home upgrades included.
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I’m Janet Wilson from Palm Springs, California.
A landmark climate and healthcare bill is headed for likely passage, after Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema said late Thursday that she would "move forward" on the sweeping package, giving Senate Democrats the votes they need to pass the Inflation Reduction Act.
Sinema, the last Democratic holdout, said she negotiated the removal of a provision to increase taxes on carried interest targeting wealthy investors, resolving a key difference that held back her support, report USA Today's Joey Garrison and Dylan Wells.
Homeowners could receive thousands of dollars in incentives for new, energy efficient appliances, insulation and more under the $485 billion package — cash that experts say could revolutionize U.S. homes, per Kyle Bagenstose with USA Today.
Payouts could range from $14,000 for a whole-house retrofit to thousands of dollars for high-efficiency hot water heaters and HVAC units to hundreds for windows, doors and insulation.
Other individual incentives include a $7,500 tax credit for low- and middle-income purchasers of new electric vehicles and a $4,000 tax credit to buy a used electric vehicle. The package is a stunning turnaround from last month, as Bagenstose and Elizabeth Weise explain, when dreams for a major climate and energy bill appeared to have been crushed again.
One more vote
Democrats still needed one last vote for the package, and Sinema, a moderate, was an unknown because of her history of rejecting carried interest taxes proposed to fund it, as the Arizona Republic's Joan Meiners reported. But in-state climate activists predicted she would vote in favor of the plan due to its incentives for Arizonans and the rest of the public.
Proponents claim the bill will slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by the end of this decade — shy of what science says is needed to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but a major step.
There are other concerns: Conservative Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, also won a concession that new coastal oil and gas drilling would need to be approved before wind leases, per USA Today's Ledyard King, and environmental justice activists say poor neighborhoods hit hardest by air and water pollution could suffer more.
No kidding
As a Californian who loves New England, I was struck by the story of a Paradise, California, family who lost their home in a devastating wildfire, and who have now moved to Vermont.
“I don’t want a tornado. I don’t want a hurricane. I don’t want a flood. I don’t want a fire,” said Ellie Holden. “As you are looking at a map of the United States, you can basically put an X through the whole western part of the country.”
“I felt excited to go to a new place and be out of the fire place,” said 10-year-old Soraya Holden, as she walked with the family’s herd of goats behind an old dairy barn.
Families are increasingly factoring climate into their location as temperatures and climate-induced disasters rise, writes Michael Casey with the Associated Press, who profiled the family.
And more
Read on for a great investigation of how Arizona golf courses are wasting water, how sea level rise increases high tides along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, including North Carolina's Outer Banks, and how electric vehicles have a downside: costing states gas tax revenue.
There's also a bit of good news about Australia's coral reefs, and California water managers are hard at work negotiating cuts to farmers and urban areas to keep the Colorado River from crashing, the same week that the United Nations highlighted the peril there.
And, those lacy white flowers in bloom right now might not be harmless Queen Anne's lace, but toxic hemlock, which is spreading rapidly across the country. USA Today's Janet Loehrke has a great visual primer to help you pick out the poison posy.
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