Are You Gonna Go My Way?

Good morning and happy Friday,

Woohoo, we did it!! The Inflation Reduction Act, which contains $370 billion in funding for energy security and climate change over the next 10 years, is now law. While this will “kick off a marathon of rulemaking,” the same article notes that the legislation sends a clear market signal and the clean energy industry is already responding.

American Clean Power Association CEO Heather Zichal called the law “the starting gun for a period of regulatory certainty,” and NRDC’s Alexandra Adams said “It’s the most historic and significant investment toward tackling climate change that we’ve ever seen come out of Congress.” So, yay team! – but boy, is there a lot to be done.

?Read on for more.

Are you gonna go my way?

As noted, while the passage of the IRA is cause for celebration, it’s by no means a slam dunk for renewables or climate advocates. There’s a whole lotta hard work ahead on multiple fronts, much of it at the state level, where renewable energy deployment lives and dies on the basis of regulatory agency decisions.

• Utilities’ long-term plans for their portfolios as well as their transmission systems – and regulators’ approval of these plans – play a key role, and are often hamstrung by a short-term focus on cost that doesn’t accommodate the long-term vision needed to deliver meaningful change.?
• The potential to reduce U.S. GHG emissions by 40% relative to 2005 levels exists, “But EVERYTHING would have to go right.”
• And ICYMI, the New York Times reported earlier this month that Republicans Are ‘Weaponizing’ Public Offices Against Climate Action.

?? The Takeaway

Most Americans believe that climate change is happening and understand the need to decarbonize our country’s economy. The IRA is a vital first step, but now it’s on clean energy supporters to engage with communities across the country and help them see how wind, solar, and energy storage projects can deliver a stronger economy today as well as a more sustainable future.

Will Culture Wars Trump Taxpayers’ Best Interests?

The IRA passed without a single Republican vote, and several states with some of the highest wind and solar potential in the country are headed by Republican governors who opposed the legislation – despite the fact that their states have “benefited greatly” from the expansion of wind and solar power, “not only through job growth but through lower ratepayer prices.”

• While G.O.P. resistance to climate legislation isn’t new, we’re a far cry from the days of yore when many Republicans were supportive of strong environmental policies.
• The current state of apparent disconnect prompted New York Times’ opinion columnist Paul Krugman to ask, “why the scorched-earth G.O.P. opposition?”
• Krugman’s conclusion is that “Environmental protection is now part of the culture war, and neither policy details nor rational argument matters.”

?? The Takeaway

There is a war to be fought here, but we should all be on the same side. Taking action to slow climate change shouldn’t be a partisan issue. We’re all in this together – we only have one planet – and it would be great if everyone could agree that global warming is a shared threat worth working together to defeat.

• Pile Up: Solar Panels Piling Up at US Border on Xinjiang Forced Labor Law
• Growing Winds: DOE Finds Record Job Growth in U.S. Wind Power Sector
• Stronger Together: US Steel, Equinor, and Shell to Develop Clean Energy Hubs

• Apex and Meta sign PPA for Great Pathfinder Wind in Iowa
• Innergex, PacifiCorp ink 320MW Boswell Springs PPA
• First Energy Announced Solar Site on Former WV Coal Ash Pile
• EDF Renewables starts up 457 MW Palen Solar operations

A divide-and-conquer approach to distribution system upgrades??

Utility Dive reports that Nexamp is one of the first solar developers to test drive a National Grid program designed to speed up the interconnection process. Two Nexamp community solar projects “have been mired in the interconnection process for the past three to five years.” National Grid’s pilot program allows developers to “design and install any required distribution upgrades that aren’t associated with existing live wires, including procuring easements and hiring contractors to complete the work,” thereby reducing the time needed to get clean energy online.