News from a Changing Planet -- This Week on Earth #45

Tracking the IRA and other big federal spending, learning more about nuclear energy and batteries, bad news about pathogens and more this week.

I’m sorry I missed last week…sometimes life’s crazy I guess!!!!! I hope you can look past my occasional failings and enjoy this week’s edition of News from a Changing Planet.

“Help me help you.” Credit Ramsay De Give/Bloomberg

SHOW ME THE MONEY?: How the government is and isn’t spending money from the IRA and other big bills. (Politico)

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA): We know it, we love it, it’s the biggest climate bill in the history of the world, but where is the money going? This tracker from Politico was a useful reality check for me on how the money is being spent (or not), what seem to be the obstacles holding back spending, and what the Biden administration is trying to do in the months ahead to ensure that this money does get spent, or at least promised, before a possible change in administration.

It actually tracks more than just the IRA though — the CHIPS and Science Act, the COVID relief bill (The American Rescue Plan) and the bipartisan infrastructure bill are in here too.

Money is being spent and things are starting to change — especially in “red states” which are getting most of the money from many of these laws, despite the insistent opposition of those states’ legislators — but it turns out that it’s actually hard to spend the money in some cases — it can’t all be spent in one year, or some of it isn’t available until a certain fiscal year.

And it’s frustrating that all of this money isn’t going immediately to build policies or provide tax incentives that would help lots of people and the planet at the same time, but it’s also worth remembering that Donald Trump has said he’ll try to undo all of this promised funding (even though that would violate a 1974 law) and asked a bunch of fossil fuel industry executives to give $1 billion to his campaign and he would roll back all of the environmental regulations on oil and gas he could…

Credit Alexander et al., 2018, Science

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE…: The likelihood of pandemics is increasing with climate change and environmental destruction (Washington Post)