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by Barry Hermanson
Washington – A new EPA analysis released today shows that the most severe harms from climate change fall disproportionately upon underserved communities who are least able to prepare for, and recover from, heat waves, poor air quality, flooding and other impacts. EPA’s analysis indicates that racial and ethnic minority communities are particularly vulnerable to the greatest impacts of climate change.
It is election season. A lot is on the line. Will Republicans or Democrats control Congress after the November election?
Democrats hope that the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) will keep them in power. Republican politicians were united in their opposition to the legislation. The IRA summary listing the details is almost seven pages in length. The full text is more than 700 pages. The summary of the legislation, the full text and and other information is available here: H.R.5376 – 117th Congress (2021-2022): Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
The $737 billion Inflation Reduction Act is legislation that will be enacted over 10 years. “Energy Security and Climate Change” is allocated $369 billion – $36.9 billion per year. A three-year extension of healthcare subsidies gets $64 billion, and $4 billion is set aside for Western drought resiliency; $300+ billion is for deficit reduction.
By comparison, the bipartisan $838 billion 2023 “defense” budget is for one year. Of that massive amount, only $2.5 billion is available for investments in clean energy and climate adaptation to protect facilities, readiness and global security – 0.3% of the annual budget. There is no provision for deficit reduction. The proposed yearly expenditure of $36.9 billion for energy security and climate change in the Inflation Reduction Act is less than 5% of our annual expenditure on military.
“Most troublingly, the bill bars the Interior Department from issuing any new right-of-way for wind or solar energy development for a decade unless the department also offers up a total of 20 million acres of land and 600 million acres of ocean area for oil and gas leasing.”
The following text is from a document published in May of 2015 entitled “The National Security Implications of a Changing Climate”: “Climate change is an urgent and growing threat to our national security, contributing to increased natural disasters, refugee flows, and conflicts over basic resources like food and water. The present day effects of climate change are being felt from the Arctic to the Midwest. Increased sea levels and storm surges threaten coastal regions, infrastructure and property. In turn, the global economy suffers, compounding the growing costs of preparing and restoring infrastructure.” – White House, National Security Strategy, February 2015
I received a campaign mailer this week from Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. She claims that the “Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act secures the single largest investment in fighting the climate crisis in U.S. history. It will put us on a path to reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030.” Sadly, that statement emphasizes how little has been invested in the past.
These investments come with an environmental cost. Slate.com reports: “Most troublingly, the bill bars the Interior Department from issuing any new right-of-way for wind or solar energy development for a decade unless the department also offers up a total of 20 million acres of land and 600 million acres of ocean area for oil and gas leasing. To put those acreages in perspective, 20 million acres is roughly the size of South Carolina; 600 million acres is more than Alaska and Texas combined. ‘Drill, baby, drill’ – once a slogan of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin – is about to become official federal policy.”
What are the costs when we don’t fund climate legislation? The National Centers for Environmental Information released a report in January that estimated $145 billion in losses during 2021. Since 1980, losses are in the trillions.
The major reasons we don’t adequately fund climate legislation?
1. Large profits from investments in fossil fuel infrastructure.
2. Politicians who accept campaign donations and work to keep those profits rolling in.
Public funding of elections is an effective solution for both numbers 1 and 2.
3. Head-in-the-sand legislators who don’t believe urgent action is needed.
Vote them out of office.
4. Racism.
After the murder of George Floyd, Hop Hopkins wrote for the Sierra Club: “You can’t have climate change without sacrifice zones, and you can’t have sacrifice zones without disposable people, and you can’t have disposable people without racism … An idea – a long-overdue realization – is growing in the environmental movement. It goes something like this: ‘We’ll never stop climate change without ending white supremacy.’”
Barry Hermanson is a member of the San Francisco Green Party and a former small business owner. Contact him at Barry@Hermansons.com or 415-255-9494.
