Commercial, GHG Emissions, Industrial, Sourcing Renewables  -  November 27, 2021

Weekend Reads: COP26 is over - now what? Infrastructure bill bets on green tech

It's the long holiday weekend! Kick back and relax with these must-read articles from around the web.

Biden’s infrastructure act bets big on 3 types of ‘green’ energy tech (Popular Science)  This week President Joe Biden signed into law a massive $1 trillion infrastructure bill, called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which puts billions of dollars into energy, climate resilience, and utility-grid updates, as well as measures to clean up pollution, increase access to safe drinking water, and boost electric vehicle charging stations. Still, the bill largely focuses on “traditional” infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, and tunnels, as opposed to the “once in a generation” climate package Biden initially envisioned it as. While there are some serious wins for the environment and for a clean energy future, experts worry that the vast majority of necessary climate and clean energy policy was shunted to the Build Back Better (BBB) plan, and even so, with compromises attached. 

COP26 is over. Now it’s up to investors, companies, and governments to raise their climate ambition (Ceres)  Government leaders, policymakers, investors, companies, and sustainability advocates from around the world have emptied out of Glasgow, the site of the COP26 climate conference that wrapped up over the weekend. Now, it’s what they do when they get home that will determine the summit’s legacy — and our children’s future.  To be sure, COP26 featured progress on many fronts in confronting the climate crisis.  

Webinar: Keys to Resiliency: Lessons Learned in the Face of Extreme Weather (Duke Energy) Wednesday, December 01, 2021, 2:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. The increasing intensity and frequency of extreme weather events exact a cost that many organizations realize they can no longer afford. Corporations, local governments, and universities are having to rethink resiliency to keep business functioning, communities running, and classes on schedule. In this webinar, industry experts from Walmart, Orange County Government and the University of Texas at Austin share lessons learned from dealing with fires, floods, storms, and freezes, and how they plan for future energy resiliency.  REGISTER HERE

How the U.S. Lost Ground to China in the Contest for Clean Energy (New York Times)  Tom Perriello saw it coming but could do nothing to stop it. André Kapanga too. Despite urgent emails, phone calls and personal pleas, they watched helplessly as a company backed by the Chinese government took ownership from the Americans of one of the world’s largest cobalt mines. It was 2016, and a deal had been struck by the Arizona-based mining giant Freeport-McMoRan to sell the site, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which now figures prominently in China’s grip on the global cobalt supply.  

Washington’s moment to shine in offshore wind energy (Seattle Times) A new industry is emerging in the U.S. that promises to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and create stable, living-wage careers, and Washington state has a prime opportunity to lead. A delegation of leaders in offshore wind energy recently came to Washington state to assess opportunities for local manufacturing and production. Washingtonians are committed to building a green economy, to spur an equitable recovery, improve our health and address climate change. To get there we will need massive increases in renewable, sustainably produced electricity. 

Key Energy Provisions in Biden Administration $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (The National Law Review) On November 15, 2021, President Biden signed into law the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Act earlier passed both Houses on a bipartisan basis. In conjunction with its passage, President Biden issued an Executive Order outlining the Administration’s priorities for dispersing monies from the infrastructure law, and establishing a task force that will coordinate the law’s implementation among federal agencies and state, local, and tribal governments. 

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