President Joe Biden is marking Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants to provide residential solar projects serving 900,000-plus households in low- and middle-income communities.
Better, money is mostly going to green banks, which are by FAR the most effective way dollar-for-dollar to get renewable projects going.
They work by providing low-interest loans to applicants doing these specific projects. Sometimes not even the full value – just enough to make it work and get off the ground. They then collect back the loan over time, and use the proceeds to fund further projects. So long as the loans don’t overwhelmingly fail, they can then continue financing more and more projects according to their mission forever. These institutions can activate 5, 10 dollars worth of projects for every federal dollar sent to them. They’re multipliers. They’re amazingly effective. And they cut through a lot of the worst bureaucratic bullshit – at least until the GOP manages to create miles of red tape in the pursuit of “accountability” on the incredibly low-risk investment they represent.
I’m real damn tired of progressives pretending Biden and his administration are bad on climate. They aren’t. They’re kicking ass on it. The IRA has me hoping for the first time in a decade, and so long as Trump doesn’t get back in and murder it next year it will become at least as sticky and hard-to-repeal as the ACA because of the inertia and constituency it builds and reinforces. Plenty of legitimate stuff to criticize in this administration. I’m so tired of all the “bitch eating crackers” he gets on climate from people who don’t know what they’re talking about.
To speak towards the frustration part: I think that, in a world where things are absolutely falling the fuck apart, people are getting tired of playing the “we gotta be polite about it” game. Many of the Democrats in America or Liberals(capital L) in Canada are still playing softball a lot of the time and it’s frustrating in the face of the catastrophe we’re rushing towards. They don’t like that, even when those parties do do something right it’s often way later than it should have been and came after a lot of fighting.
Here in Canada the Liberal government is doing “ok” but we’re in so much fucking shit that doing “ok” just isn’t good enough anymore. It shouldn’t take our left wing party, the NDP, to convince them that teeth should be included in our healthcare system.
Better, money is mostly going to green banks, which are by FAR the most effective way dollar-for-dollar to get renewable projects going.
They work by providing low-interest loans to applicants doing these specific projects. Sometimes not even the full value – just enough to make it work and get off the ground. They then collect back the loan over time, and use the proceeds to fund further projects. So long as the loans don’t overwhelmingly fail, they can then continue financing more and more projects according to their mission forever. These institutions can activate 5, 10 dollars worth of projects for every federal dollar sent to them. They’re multipliers. They’re amazingly effective. And they cut through a lot of the worst bureaucratic bullshit – at least until the GOP manages to create miles of red tape in the pursuit of “accountability” on the incredibly low-risk investment they represent.
I’m real damn tired of progressives pretending Biden and his administration are bad on climate. They aren’t. They’re kicking ass on it. The IRA has me hoping for the first time in a decade, and so long as Trump doesn’t get back in and murder it next year it will become at least as sticky and hard-to-repeal as the ACA because of the inertia and constituency it builds and reinforces. Plenty of legitimate stuff to criticize in this administration. I’m so tired of all the “bitch eating crackers” he gets on climate from people who don’t know what they’re talking about.
That’s great information, thanks!
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To speak towards the frustration part: I think that, in a world where things are absolutely falling the fuck apart, people are getting tired of playing the “we gotta be polite about it” game. Many of the Democrats in America or Liberals(capital L) in Canada are still playing softball a lot of the time and it’s frustrating in the face of the catastrophe we’re rushing towards. They don’t like that, even when those parties do do something right it’s often way later than it should have been and came after a lot of fighting.
Here in Canada the Liberal government is doing “ok” but we’re in so much fucking shit that doing “ok” just isn’t good enough anymore. It shouldn’t take our left wing party, the NDP, to convince them that teeth should be included in our healthcare system.