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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Electrifying this affordable housing complex made financial sense
Canary Media's 'Electrified Life' column shares real-world tales, tips, and insights to demystify what individuals and building owners can do to shift to clean electric power. An affordable housing complex for older adults in Sacramento, California, boasts some enticing features. Residents of the earth-toned, low-rise structures can cultivate gardens, swim laps in the pool, and toss bocce balls. They can stroll to visit neighbors. And now, after an electric transformation of the buildings, Foothill Farms residents can also enjoy the cleaner air that comes with ditching gas appliances. The project not only slashes the complex's health-harming and planet-warming pollution — it also made financial sense for both the owner BRIDGE Housing and its tenants. Two years ago, the 138-unit property's original gas-fired equipment was nearing the end of its life. Coupled with available financial support, the timing gave executives of BRIDGE, a nonprofit affordable housing developer and manager, a chance to pivot away from fossil fuels. The 'smart, opportunistic' project at Foothill Farms illustrates how properties can electrify while keeping costs low for residents, according to a case study written earlier this year by staff at the Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future, a collaborative of 13 nonprofits, including BRIDGE. The retrofit is also a trailblazer for the decarbonization journey millions more units of government-supported affordable housing will eventually need to take. Although single-family housing is by far the most prevalent in the U.S., and the biggest source of carbon pollution from homes, cutting fossil fuels from multifamily affordable housing is a particularly tricky task. Some of the most vulnerable Americans live in subsidized apartments, including low-income households with older adults, disabled individuals, young families, and veterans — and they usually rent these units. Residents typically lack the power or cash to electrify properties, which presents a hurdle to eradicating emissions from buildings and denies inhabitants the upsides of these retrofits: greater comfort, safer air, and potential bill savings. 'There's an opportunity for delivering outsized benefits to [these] residents and communities,' said Lucas Toffoli, principal of the carbon-free buildings division at clean-energy think tank RMI. In 2023, BRIDGE Housing decided Foothill Farms would be a good candidate for energy-efficiency upgrades after Bright Power, an energy services provider, and Carbon Zero Buildings, a company specializing in decarbonization retrofits, analyzed BRIDGE's entire portfolio of properties. Carbon Zero carried out the electrifying changes: The turnkey contractor swapped out polluting gas-fueled water heaters for Rheem heat-pump water heaters and replaced ACs with Samsung heat pumps capable of both warming and cooling spaces. The firm also installed LED lighting everywhere, which consumes a tenth of the energy of incandescent light bulbs. Carbon Zero's team first piloted the complete retrofit in one unit to work out the kinks. With feedback from staff and residents, the crew honed its approach so that it could complete a unit's upgrades in a single day during business hours. 'I love that,' said Toffoli, who wasn't involved in the project. 'Displacing folks is not only expensive and burdensome ... it's a real disruption to people who may be juggling a lot of things, like work and family, or who have limited mobility or health problems.' In the common areas, Carbon Zero installed a new heat-pump pool heater and heat-pump spa heater, 30 EV charging stations, and 240-volt power outlets in the laundry rooms. Foothill Farms still has gas-powered clothes dryers, but BRIDGE plans to replace them with electric dryers when they conk out. Comparing 2023 average monthly energy usage data to 10 months of data after the in-unit retrofits were completed last spring, natural-gas use has decreased by 98% while electricity use has risen 24% across the whole property, thanks in large part to the almost-magical efficiency of heat pumps. Virtually all of the project's $2.6 million cost was covered by state and utility grants: California's Low-Income Weatherization Program, TECH Clean California, and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Other projects, though, are by no means guaranteed to see so much aid, with funding limited and awards variable, said Sebastian Cohn, senior project manager at the nonprofit Association for Energy Affordability and BRIDGE's primary contact for the weatherization program incentive. 'It is typically in a property's best interest to enroll [in these incentive programs] sooner than later,' Cohn told Canary Media. 'The same project reserved today would receive less than half the [Sacramento Municipal Utility District] incentives Foothill Farms did due to updated incentive levels and per-project limits.' Unlike many landlords who don't pay tenants' utility bills, and thus don't benefit from energy-efficiency upgrades, BRIDGE actually had a financial incentive to make this switch to electric appliances: The organization pays for residents' gas usage but not their electricity bills. How then did the project prevent residents' costs from going up? Elementary, my dear reader. Federal rules for most subsidized affordable housing protect residents from high rent and utility costs — and make sure these expenses don't exceed 30% of their income — by requiring owners to provide what are called utility allowances, i.e., rent reductions to tenants paying their own utilities. The exact amounts are set by housing authorities and depend on locale, home size, and types of appliances. Based on the utility allowances for Sacramento when Carbon Zero pitched the project, the contractor estimated that residents would come out ahead, with each unit on average saving over $200 annually. The estimated savings for BRIDGE itself were $25,000 per year. The real-world results match the initial project modeling very well, Cohn said, though BRIDGE declined to share specific dollar savings. BRIDGE isn't planning to stop with this project; a spokesperson said it's already working with Carbon Zero and Bright Power on similar retrofits at a few other California properties.
Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Miami Herald
Clean energy workforce training hub a ‘gamechanger' in this struggling factor town
Decatur, Illinois, has been losing factory jobs for years. A training program at a local community college promises renewal and provides training for students from disenfranchised communities This story is part of a collaboration between the Institute for Nonprofit News' Rural News Network and Canary Media, South Dakota News Watch, Cardinal News, The Mendocino Voice and The Maine Monitor, with support from Ascendium Education Group. It is reprinted with permission. DECATUR, IL. - A fistfight at a high school football game nearly defined Shawn Honorable's life. It was 1999 when he and a group of teen boys were expelled and faced criminal charges over the incident. The story of the "Decatur Seven" drew national headlines and protests led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who framed their harsh treatment as blatant racism. The governor eventually intervened, and the students were allowed to attend alternative schools. Honorable, now 41, was encouraged by support "from around the world," but he said the incident was traumatizing and he continued to struggle academically and socially. Over the years, he dabbled in illegal activity and was incarcerated, most recently after a 2017 conviction for accepting a large amount of marijuana sent through the mail. Today, Honorable is ready to start a new chapter, having graduated with honors last week from a clean energy workforce training program at Richland Community College, located in the Central Illinois city of Decatur. He would eventually like to own or manage a solar company, but he has more immediate plans to start a solar-powered mobile hot dog stand. He's already chosen the name: Buns on the Run. "By me going back to school and doing this, it shows my nephews and my little cousins and nieces that it is good to have education," Honorable said. "I know this is going to be the new way of life with solar panels. So I'll have a step up on everyone. When it comes, I will already be aware of what's going on with this clean energy thing." After decades of layoffs and factory closings, the community of Decatur is also looking to clean energy as a potential springboard. Located amid soybean fields a three-hour drive from Chicago, the city was long known for its Caterpillar, Firestone Tire, and massive corn-syrup factories. Industrial jobs have been in decline for decades, though, and high rates of gun violence, child poverty, unemployment, and incarceration were among the reasons the city was named a clean energy workforce hub funded under Illinois' 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA). Decatur's hub, based at Richland Community College, is arguably the most developed and successful of the dozen or so established statewide. That's thanks in part to TCCI Manufacturing, a local, family-owned factory that makes electric vehicle compressors. TCCI is expanding its operations with a state-of-the-art testing facility and an on-site campus where Richland students will take classes adjacent to the manufacturing floor. The electric truck company Rivian also has a factory 50 miles away. "The pieces are all coming together," Kara Demirjian, senior vice president of TCCI Manufacturing, said by email. "What makes this region unique is that it's not just about one company or one product line. It's about building an entire clean energy ecosystem. The future of EV manufacturing leadership won't just be on the coasts - it's being built right here in the Midwest." Related: Want to read more about how climate change is shaping education? Subscribe to our free newsletter. The Decatur CEJA program has also flourished because it was grafted onto a preexisting initiative, EnRich, that helps formerly incarcerated or otherwise disenfranchised people gain new skills and employment. The program is overseen by the Rev. Courtney Carson, a childhood friend of Honorable and another member of the Decatur Seven. "So many of us suffer significantly from our unmet needs, our unhealed traumas," said Carson, who was jailed as a young man for gun possession and later drag racing. With the help of mentors including Rev. Jackson and a college basketball coach, he parlayed his past into leadership, becoming associate pastor at a renowned church, leading a highway construction class at Richland, and in 2017 being elected to the same school board that had expelled him. Carson, now vice president of external relations at the community college, tapped his own experience to shape EnRich as a trauma-informed approach, with wraparound services to help students overcome barriers - from lack of childcare to PTSD to a criminal record. Carson has faith that students can overcome such challenges to build more promising futures, like Decatur itself has done. "We have all these new opportunities coming in, and there's a lot of excitement in the city," Carson said. "That's magnificent. So what has to happen is these individuals who suffered from closures, they have to be reminded that there is hope." Richland Community College's clean energy jobs training starts with an eight-week life skills course that has long been central to the larger EnRich program. The course uses a Circle of Courage practice inspired by Indigenous communities and helps students prepare to handle stressful workplace situations like being disrespected or even called a racial slur. "Being called the N-word, couldn't that make you want to fight somebody? But now you lose your job," said Carson. "We really dive deep into what's motivating their attitude and those traumas that have significantly impacted their body to make them respond to situations either the right way or the wrong way." The training addresses other dynamics that might be unfamiliar to some students - for example, some male students might not be prepared to be supervised by a woman, Carson noted, or others might not be comfortable with LGBTQ+ coworkers. James said that at first, he showed up late to every class. But soon the lessons sank in, and he was never late again. He always paid attention when people talked, and he gained new confidence. "As long as I put my mind to it, I can do it," said James, who would like to work as a home energy auditor. Richland partners with the energy utility Ameren to place trainees in such positions. "I like being out in the field, learning new stuff, dealing with homes, helping people," James said, noting he made energy-efficiency improvements to his own home after the course. Related: To fill 'education deserts,' more states want community colleges to offer bachelor's degrees Illinois' 2017 Future Energy Jobs Act (FEJA) launched the state's clean energy transition, baking in equity goals that prioritize opportunities for people who benefited least and were harmed most by the fossil fuel economy. It created programs to deploy solar arrays and provide job training in marginalized and environmental justice communities. FEJA's rollout was rocky. Funding for equity-focused solar installations went unspent while workforce programs struggled to recruit trainees and connect them with jobs. The pandemic didn't help. The follow-up legislation, CEJA, expanded workforce training programs and remedied snafus in the original law. Melissa Gombar is principal director of workforce development programs for Elevate, a Chicago-based national nonprofit organization that oversaw FEJA job training and subcontracts for a Chicago-area CEJA hub. Gombar said many community organizations tasked with running FEJA training programs were relatively small and grassroots, so they had to scramble to build new financial and human resources infrastructure. "They have to have certain policies in place for hiring and procurement. The influx of grant money might have doubled their budget," Gombar said. Meanwhile, the state employees tasked with helping the groups "are really talented and skilled, trying their best, but they're overburdened because of the large lift." CEJA, by contrast, tapped community colleges like Richland, which already had robust infrastructure and staffing. CEJA also funds community organizations to serve as "navigators," using the trust and credibility they've developed in communities to recruit trainees. Richland Community College received $2.6 million from April 2024 through June 2025, and the Community Foundation of Macon County, the hub's navigator, received $440,000 for the same time period. The other hubs similarly received between $1 million and $3.3 million for the past year, and state officials have said the same level of funding will be allocated for each of the next two years, according to the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition. CEJA hubs also include social service providers that connect trainees with wraparound support; businesses like TCCI that offer jobs; and affiliated entrepreneur incubators that help people start their own clean energy businesses. CEJA also funded apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs with labor unions, which are often a prerequisite for employment in utility-scale solar and wind. "The sum of the parts is greater than the whole," said Drew Keiser, TCCI vice president of global human resources. "The navigator is saying, 'Hey, I've connected with this portion of the population that's been overlooked or underserved.' OK, once you get them trained, send their resumes to me, and I'll get them interviewed. We're seeing a real pipeline into careers." The hub partners go to great lengths to aid students - for example, coordinating and often paying for transportation, childcare, or even car repairs. "If you need some help, they always there for you," James said. Related: Losing faith: Rural, religious colleges are among the most endangered In 1984, TCCI began making vehicle compressors in a Decatur plant formerly used to build Sherman tanks during World War II. A few decades later, the company began producing compressors for electric vehicles, which are much more elaborate and sensitive than those for internal combustion engines. In August 2023, Gov. JB Pritzker joined TCCI President Richard Demirjian, the Decatur mayor, and college officials for the groundbreaking of an Electric Vehicle Innovation Hub, which will include a climatic research facility - basically a high-tech wind tunnel where companies and researchers from across the world can send EV chargers, batteries, compressors, and other components for testing in extreme temperatures, rain, and wind. A $21.3 million capital grant and a $2.2 million electric vehicle incentive from the state are funding the wind tunnel and the new facilities where Richland classes will be held. In 2022, Pritzker announced these investments as furthering the state goal of 1 million EVs on the road by 2030. Far from the gritty industrial environs that likely characterized Decatur workplaces of the past, the classrooms at TCCI feature colorful decor, comfortable armchairs, and bright, airy spaces adjacent to pristine high-tech manufacturing floors lined with machines. "This hub is a game changer," said Keiser, noting the need for trained tradespeople. "As a country, we place a lot of emphasis on kids going to college, and maybe we've kind of overlooked getting tangible skills in the hands of folks." A marketing firm founded by Kara Demirjian – Richard Demirjian's sister – and located on-site with TCCI also received clean energy hub funds to promote the training program. This has been crucial to the hub's success, according to Ariana Bennick, account executive at the firm, DCC Marketing. Its team has developed, tested, and deployed digital billboards, mailers, ads, Facebook events, and other approaches to attract trainees and business partners. "Being a part of something here in Decatur that's really leading the nation in this clean energy initiative is exciting," Bennick said. "It can be done here in the middle of the cornfields. We want to show people a framework that they can take and scale in other places." With graduation behind him, Honorable is planning the types of hot dogs and sausages he'll sell at Buns on the Run. He said Tamika Thomas, director of the CEJA program at Richland, has also encouraged him to consider teaching so he can share the clean energy skills he's learned with others. The world seems wide open with possibilities. "A little at a time - I'm going to focus on the tasks in front of me that I'm passionate about, and then see what's next," Honorable said. He invoked a favorite scene from the cartoon TV series "The Flintstones," in which the characters' leg power, rather than wheels and batteries, propelled vehicles: "Like Fred and Barney, I'll be up and running." The post Clean energy workforce training hub a 'gamechanger' in this struggling factor town appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Nobody's seen it': An elusive report could drive Empire Wind to collapse
A massive New York offshore wind project may soon be abandoned mid-construction due to a mysterious report that few people in Washington appear to have seen except Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, one Fox News reporter, and the scientists who apparently wrote it. 'Scientists at [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] have revealed that the Biden administration's rushed approval of the Empire Wind project was built on bad & flawed science,' Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted to X on April 21, five days after he issued a stop-work order that halted the Empire Wind 1 project and shocked the industry. His social media posts implied that findings from federal scientists at NOAA were the basis for the extreme measure. Construction can't restart until the Interior Department performs 'further reviews,' he wrote. Those apparently damning NOAA findings, however, have not been made public. Burgum's office did not respond to Canary Media's requests to share them. Nor have they been shared with Equinor, the project developer. As of May 14, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, hadn't seen them either, despite repeated requests. Even key members of Burgum's own staff in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's renewable energy office have not seen it, Canary Media has learned. 'Nobody's seen this report,' said a career employee at the Interior Department who Canary Media granted anonymity to speak freely for fear of retribution. 'My personal opinion is that it's all bullshit.' The lack of clarity raises questions about the basis of the Interior Department's initial decision, and what, exactly, its ongoing review is looking at. Desperate for an answer, Equinor has resorted to filing a Freedom of Information Act request for the report. That route could take months or years to deliver — time the project simply can't afford. The delays have created an 'urgent, unsustainable situation,' according to one Empire Wind executive, who told the Associated Press last week that the company was days away from giving up on the renewable energy project. The costs of idle boats and grounded workers are just too high, she said, bleeding the company of $50 million each week. Empire Wind 1 comprises a 73-acre onshore terminal and 54 turbines that were being built roughly 20 miles from New York City. The project's onshore work is halfway completed, and at-sea construction started in early April. It took eight years to get to that point, including over four years in the federal permitting process, from 2020 to 2024, despite Burgum's claim that its approval was rushed. The project is crucial to New York state's grid decarbonization goals, which rest heavily on offshore wind power. About two weeks into at-sea construction, on April 16, Burgum sent a letter to BOEM, a branch of the Interior, that halted the at-sea work. In Burgum's statement about the NOAA scientists' findings, posted on X days later, he linked to a Fox News article that summarizes the contents of a 'study' from NOAA, a sub-agency of the Commerce Department that works closely with BOEM to ensure offshore wind and other ocean energy developments do not run afoul of U.S. laws. The Fox News journalist appears to be the first and only reporter to access the study's contents. Industry groups fear Burgum's order sets a dangerous precedent for vaporizing energy projects mid-construction on the premise of politics. 'Stopping work on the fully federally permitted Empire Wind 1 offshore project should send chills across all industries investing in and holding contracts with the United States government,' said Liz Burdock, president and CEO of Oceantic Network, an offshore wind industry group. Documents obtained by Canary Media indicate that staffers in BOEM's Office of Renewable Energy Programs (OREP) have been denied access to the report. OREP is the government's 'hub' for offshore wind permitting and federal coordination, said the Interior employee who spoke with Canary Media. Its staff are in constant contact with offshore wind developers, the person added, from the time of lease purchase to the point where 'steel goes in the water.' It's not uncommon, they explained, for a developer and their assigned OREP point-of-contact to meet a few times each month. The Interior employee said that personnel within OREP, including top-level figures, were not alerted of Burgum's order until the day the news broke: 'There was no BOEM press release … nothing internal went out.' When it comes to the Empire Wind block, Burgum appears to be keeping BOEM in the dark. The Interior staffer said that, to their knowledge, no one at OREP has been explicitly asked to help with the ongoing review of Empire Wind's approval that Burgum announced in April. But a few days after the news broke, OREP was tapped to put together a spreadsheet that summarized 'concerns' about Empire Wind, according to the Interior staffer. The summary was prepared by OREP staff and sent to one of the office's supervisors within the last week, according to emails shared with Canary Media. The spreadsheet listed all concerns raised by the public and other federal agencies during the eight years Empire Wind went from lease sale to full approval. For each concern raised about Empire Wind, OREP staff were instructed in an email seen by Canary Media to succinctly summarize 'BOEM's response, the extent to which the issue was fully addressed, BOEM's view of whether the concern is mitigated, and whether there is new information that has been identified since [construction and operations] approval that would change the finding or outcome.' The spreadsheet includes hundreds of concerns — whether they are valid or not — that the public submitted in response to the Empire Wind's environmental impact assessment. OREP staff were instructed to capture as many of them as possible in this 'summary.' The Interior staffer said the whole exercise smacked of a fishing expedition — 'saying there is a problem and then they have to go searching for a problem.' Equinor, the wind farm's developer, has also been in the dark. 'The federal stop-work order from the Department of the Interior did not include information about the alleged deficiencies in the approval,' a spokesperson for Equinor told Canary Media. Equinor has since submitted 'repeated requests' to Burgum's office for the NOAA report, according to the spokesperson, in addition to filing the FOIA request. The Norwegian energy giant has already invested $2.7 billion into building the project's onshore and offshore infrastructure. It's anxious to know if it can still get a return on its investment — and turbines in the sea — but information has been hard to come by. 'While there have been some meetings, that does not include Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum,' Equinor's spokesperson told Canary Media. Last week, an Equinor executive met with a top White House official, Bloomberg reported, but the meeting appeared to yield little beyond another dire warning. 'If no progress is made within days, Equinor will be forced to terminate the project,' Molly Morris, president of Equinor Renewables Americas, told Bloomberg on Monday. 'We are still fighting every day to find a resolution.' Equinor is a familiar face in Washington. It has particularly long-standing relationships with conservatives, as the company has invested over $60 billion in the U.S. since the early 2000s, mostly in oil and gas. The company spokesperson said that 'Equinor has over 100 oil and gas leases in the Gulf of America,' referencing the new name President Donald Trump bestowed on the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year. Now, it's Democrats who are backing Equinor and joining its call for Burgum to hand over the NOAA report. In an impassioned speech, Sen. Schumer of New York compared the halt of Empire Wind to a 'dictatorship' where whim reigns and due process dies. 'I call on [Commerce] Secretary Lutnick to immediately release the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report that was used as justification to halt work on the Empire Wind project. New Yorkers, Americans, the company, which invests heavily in America, deserve to know. Why halt this project? What's the deal?' said Schumer on the U.S. Senate floor on Wednesday. The senator also spelled out the incredible stakes should Equinor walk away. Empire Wind is being developed under contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). According to Equinor, it will create roughly 2,500 new jobs in the New York area over the lifetime of the project. Roughly 1,000 of those employees are already at work. Empire Wind 1 is also a critical component of New York's strategy to address climate change and get 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. It's the largest energy infrastructure project the state has undertaken in the last 50 years, according to NYSERDA President Doreen Harris, who in an April 17 statement lambasted the Trump administration's stop-work order for doing 'irrefutable harm.' It's also important for helping New York City meet its humongous and growing electricity needs. Empire Wind 1 is one of the only 'new capacity sources' slated to come online in the near term for New York City and Long Island, according to a report released Monday by Aurora Energy Research. Should the project be canceled, alternatives are scarce: It can take up to eight years to build a new fossil-gas turbine, the report found, and more speculative energy sources like small modular nuclear reactors lack necessary federal approvals to fill in the gap. That makes Empire Wind 1, and offshore wind in general, key to the city being able to provide reliable and affordable energy to its millions of residents. In late April, during its first-quarter earnings call, Equinor's CEO floated that the company was considering legal action against the U.S. government over its stop-work order. It's the last lever the company has to pull to preserve the project. An Equinor spokesperson told Canary Media on Friday that the company's stance on weighing legal options has not changed. Schumer has heavily encouraged the firm to sue. 'We think it's illegal. And in fact, I have a call today into the head of [Equinor] to tell him to go to court, you'll win the case,' Schumer told reporters in early May. 'Our lawyers we've consulted think they have no basis to suspend it.' The Interior employee shared Schumer's sentiment. 'My personal hope is that Equinor does sue. Because I think what they would find during discovery is that we have no new information,' the employee said. 'There's nothing that was not already considered during the [permit] process that would warrant this change in decision.'
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Chart: Republicans take aim at clean energy boom benefiting GOP most
See more from Canary Media's "Chart of the week' column. House Republicans introduced legislation on Monday that would gut the Inflation Reduction Act. If the proposed rules become law, it will lead to more greenhouse gas emissions — and threaten hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of economic development in regions represented in Congress by Republicans. A vast majority of the clean energy projects announced after the Inflation Reduction Act was enacted benefit Republican-led congressional districts, per the latest update from the Clean Investment Monitor, a joint project from research firm Rhodium Group and experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The budget proposal introduced Monday by the House Ways and Means Committee would not outright repeal the Inflation Reduction Act. Instead, it'd saddle the law's various clean energy incentives with confusing and difficult-to-meet requirements, and phase many of the tax credits out sooner than current statute does. A former Biden administration Treasury official described it to Canary Media as 'a backdoor repeal.' If passed in its current form, the proposal would have a crushing effect on the booming U.S. clean energy industry, according to a separate preliminary analysis released Tuesday by Rhodium. Since the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law in August 2022, companies have invested a total of about $320 billion into clean energy projects in the U.S. and plan to spend more than $500 billion on top of that to build cleantech factories, low-carbon industrial facilities, and installations of solar, batteries, and other renewables. Nearly 80% of the dollars already spent went to Republican districts, and three-quarters of planned investment will go to those areas. As law, the Ways and Means proposal could derail a lot of that outstanding spending — and even some of the projects already under construction or operational. Rhodium's preliminary analysis found that somewhere between 57% and 72% less clean energy would be added to the grid over the next decade under a repeal scenario, while somewhere between 16% and 38% fewer EVs would be on the road by 2035 than if the law was preserved as is. Those declines in clean-energy and EV adoption would mean less demand for manufacturers who plan to build factories to produce electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, wind transmission cables, and other cleantech in the States. They would have to reevaluate whether their factories still make sense under an entirely different set of economic conditions — and it's likely that the answer would be 'no' for many. Already, thanks to the Trump administration's trade and policy uncertainty, manufacturers of clean energy technology are abandoning projects at a rate not seen in the post-Inflation Reduction Act era. Nearly $7 billion worth of clean-energy manufacturing projects were canceled in the first quarter of the year alone. Monday's House Ways and Means proposal may never make it into law as is; some Republican senators and representatives are quickly coming out in opposition to the tax-credit changes. But the aggressive nature of the proposal will do little to restore the confidence of companies already wavering on domestic clean energy projects amid the chaos of the Trump administration.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Teachers secure unprecedented victory after hard-fought contract battle with district: 'It shows we can win'
Chicago teachers have scored a win for clean energy and climate action through their newly approved contract, Canary Media reported. The agreement, approved by 97% of union members last month, includes innovative programs that will prepare students for clean energy careers. It also requires district officials to update their climate action plan by 2026 and calls for installing heat pumps and solar panels at 30 schools. These climate provisions come at a perfect time. Schools can use state programs such as Illinois Shines and the federal 30% investment tax credit for solar installations through a direct-pay option designed for schools and other tax-exempt organizations. The focus on job training responds directly to student needs. Many high schoolers have expressed that college isn't their plan, and they want skills to enter trades that offer good careers without student debt. These clean energy upgrades make financial sense for schools, with buildings averaging 83 years old. Solar panels and energy efficiency improvements can lower costs, freeing up money that would otherwise be spent on utility bills to fund educational programs and prevent layoffs. The push for clean energy in Chicago schools demonstrates that local actions can maintain momentum even when federal support wavers. Illinois officials and advocates remain committed to the state's clean energy transition, with another major energy bill before the legislature. "This contract is setting the floor of what we hope we can accomplish," said Lauren Bianchi, green schools organizer for the union. "It shows we can win on climate." "Black history, Indigenous history, climate science — that's protected instruction now," noted Jackson Potter, union vice president. The agreement positions Chicago schools to save money, create jobs, and build a cleaner future. If you're interested in how clean energy can benefit your own community, it could provide a practical blueprint worth following. Do you think kids learn enough about gardening in school? Not even close There could be more focus It's probably about right It doesn't belong in school Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
