Climate Change Before & After

A Clean Energy First

Two years ago, President Biden and congressional Democrats passed the poorly named Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), now stimulating America’s clean energy economy and reducing America’s overall greenhouse gas and carbon emissions fueling Global Heating. Since the IRA stimulus, hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs have been created across America.  Americans have also claimed over $8 billion in tax credits tied the purchase and deployment of energy efficient and climate-friendly technologies for their homes and businesses.

Ira Graph 2IRA benefits are designed to stimulate America’s transition into a clean energy economy.  Individual taxpayers also benefit from the IRA program by enabling the advancement of rooftop solar and battery storage systems, now stabilizing a national energy grid increasingly challenged by climate impacts.

The Inflation Reduction Act’s investment dollars have and are advancing America’s clean energy economy ranging from R&D ventures to manufacturing and to the wide scale installation of domestic clean energy systems and technology, each contributing to the reduction of a costly national dependence on yesterday’s gas and oil energy economy.

Ironically, or by President Biden’s design, a sizable component of newly created IRA clean energy jobs have been positioned in states and districts that favored Trump in both 2020 and 2024 election cycles. A move some have described as designed to slow GOP efforts targeting an IRA roll-back as more Red states invest in clean energy, once the exclusive domain of Blue states. Predictably, president-elect Trump publicly stated on several occasions his intentions to get rid of the IRA, and at minimum “claw-back” the IRA’s remaining funds while instead advancing his oil and gas dirty energy agenda and donor priorities.

It has been a Cinderellian four years for clean energy in the United States. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the landmark Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) have leveraged grant and loan programs, tax credits, and other policies to catalyze more than $1 trillion in manufacturing, infrastructure, and clean energy investments since Joe Biden took office. As a result, communities from coast to coast are getting much-needed electric infrastructure upgrades, global companies are setting up shop to build important stuff, and we’re even making solar cells stateside again.

Now, in the twilight hours of Biden’s watch, the feds are hustling to clean out the cupboards, allocating as much remaining IRA funding as possible to keep its fate out of the hands of Donald Trump.

The beneficiaries of Trump’s energy plans are the already enriched national fossil fuel energy sector energy, who historically have dominated US energy policy and national energy subsidies. Not surprising, this same industrial sector is now the primary source growing Global Heating liabilities impacting the country and the planet.  Fires now sweeping through southern California coastal cities are the most recent example of costly climate-fueled disasters.

Ira Funding Remaining 12 24In response to a hotter planet, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is also  delivering the most significant climate investments ever seen in the United States. If the present trends hold, it is likely that the IRA tax credit totals will eclipse all other funding types from the legislation, meaning a highly diversified national deployment of solar generation at the time it is needed most.  Key IRA program funding not listed in figure 1 graph include; the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, Home Energy Rebates, and individual taxpayer clean energy tax credits:

Hawaii; IRA Beneficiary?

In 2024, Hawaii received significant climate funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

  • The state was awarded $68.5 million for a major climate resilience project led by the University of Hawaii’s Sea Grant College Program
  • This project, called “Aina Restoration Through Community Governance to Advance Climate Resilience in the Hawaiian Islands,” aims to restore ecosystems and improve resource management.
  • Additionally, $20 million in federal funds were allocated to 17 Native Hawaiian organizations for climate resilience efforts

Following IRA funding, was part of the Department of the Interior’s Kapapahuliau Climate Resilience Program, in support of the following initiatives, including:

  • Raising climate change awareness
  • Restoring native forests and ahupuaa-based communities
  • Protecting ancestral burials
  • Promoting Native knowledge and practices
  • The state also received $9.1 million specifically for climate resilience efforts

Hawaii also benefited from other IRA-funded programs in 2024:

  • 16 applications for the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), requesting $3,891,223
  • 8 projects under the Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program, requesting $387,904,375
  • 2 projects under the Empowering Rural America (New ERA) program, requesting $64,432,692

These investments demonstrate the significant and positive impact of the IRA on Hawaii’s climate resilience efforts in 2024.

What Hawaii and the nation can expect from the new Trump administration in the way clean energy policy remains to be seen. Based on recent Trump statements, the talk is of clean energy funding rollbacks, ongoing cause & effect climate denials, and ill-informed policy statements and political plays boosting greater national fossil fuel dependencies.


Hawaii; IRA & Climate Stimulus Funding

Hawaii’s Senator Schatz, as a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has been at the forefront of advancing the state’s climate resiliency and clean energy efforts, emphasizing the importance of supporting Hawaii’s recovery from recent disasters while also investing in long-term resilience and development in preparing for a changing and hotter climate.

Senator Schatz was also instrumental in securing significant IRA and related federal funding for Hawaii, particularly advancing initiatives related to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and other key sustainability priorities including over $6 billion in direct federal funding for Hawaii.  Schatz further secured for the state more than $68 million in new federal funding, now heading to Hawaii and designed to improve state climate and disaster resilience, along with additional $20 million allocated for Native Hawaiian climate resilience projects, marking the first time the federal government is funding Native Hawaiian-led climate initiatives.

How well the state applies these new funding sources towards readying the state for growing climate impacts remains to be seen. This much is clear, time is running out for debate as the window of opportunity on climate change preparedness impacts Hawaii and the world.

 

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