The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is garnering many superlatives—monumental, historic, unprecedented. Indeed, the IRA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the CHIPS and Science Act are massive federal expenditures designed to combat climate change, spur a clean energy industrial revolution in the U.S., and create economic opportunity for millions of Americans. It will be up to states and municipalities to ensure that the funds actually result in accelerating an equitable clean energy transition.
Since the IRA became law on August 16, the CETI team has been working hard to understand the provisions that relate to lowering energy costs, increasing clean energy, and reducing U.S. greenhouse gas by approximately 40% by 2030. To do so, we’ve listened to every podcast and watched every webinar we could find on the IRA and read numerous articles and analyses. Read CETI Researcher Ruby Moore-Bloom's blog on the most helpful resources that she has found along the way.
Oregon Environmental Council Climate Program Director Nora Apter and I gave two presentations describing how the IRA might benefit Washington and Oregon. The first was at the Renewable Northwest Annual Member meeting held on September 29 at Cannon Beach, OR. I focused on provisions that could help achieve the Washington 2021 State Energy Strategy recommendations. As a sidenote, I am excited to announce that I was appointed to the Renewable Northwest board at that annual meeting.
Our second event took place virtually on October 18, when Nora and I reprised our act (with updated information as understanding the IRA remains an ever-evolving experience) at the Sustainable Northwest’s 2022 Making Energy Work Symposium meeting.
While we continue to unpack IRA funding opportunities, BIL money is already flowing to Washington state. Two Washington projects, awarded $100 million each, are among the 20 recipients of funding designed to boost domestic production of batteries and critical minerals used in electric vehicles. Both Washington projects focus on silicon anode components for electric vehicle batteries and plan to set up shop in Moses Lake, Washington. Ruby explains more on our blog.
Earlier this month, we released the first of three planned short films, Harvesting the Sun, which tells the stories of three businesses in Jefferson and Clallam counties that have benefited from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)'s Rural Energy for America (REAP) program. The next short film will feature energy sovereignty at the Lummi Nation.
On October 14, CETI Research Fellow Mariah Caballero presented key findings from our Community-Defined Decarbonization report on a panel about Tribal energy resilience at the Washington State 2022 Solar Summit. We released this analysis in early September.
Since the January 2022 launch of Operation 2030, which provides analytics and a roadmap for accelerating building decarbonization in Washington state from 2022-2030, CETI and the 2050 Institute engaged with a wide range of stakeholders to seek input on our analysis. We interviewed 28 building decarbonization experts and held two workshops with the Washington State Department of Commerce Buildings Team. A summary of these efforts and their strategy implications is now available on our website.
In late August, we released updates to the Northwest Clean Energy Atlas, which includes new datasets added to the energy and emissions visualizations, as well as new visualizations from the Community-Defined Decarbonization report.
If you are new to the Atlas, check out two of Ruby’s blogs that explain what to expect from the data visualizations and how to navigate the website. As always, please continue to offer your observations and share the Atlas with your network.
Speaking of the Atlas, how well do you know the Northwest energy system? Take our quiz and use our interactive Atlas visualization to find out. This month’s question is: What percentage of electricity produced in the four Northwest states in 2020 came from carbon-free sources?
a. 36%
b. 57%
c. 73%
d. 96%
Send us your answers and check back next month to see if you were right. We’ll send a prize to the first 10 people who send us the correct answer!
We did some fall housecleaning with the CETI website to improve access to our growing number of activities. You can now view our projects organized by program area: Deep Decarbonization Pathways; Building Decarbonization; Industrial Decarbonization; Rural and Tribal Community Decarbonization; and the Northwest Clean Energy Atlas. We also refreshed our home page design. Let us know if you can see the difference!
As you begin to develop your end-of-the-year giving plans, we hope that you will keep CETI in mind. We cannot do our work without your generous support, and we would be grateful for any contribution you can make.
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