This is a Big (Climate) Deal: What's in the Inflation Reduction Act?

[MUSIC] Welcome to a special episode of A Matter of Degrees, stories for the climate curious. I'm Dr. Katherine Wilkinson, and I'm Dr. Leah Stokes. We're currently between seasons in production on season three, which will launch in the fall. And who are we so excited about what we're cooking up for all this season? This episode was recorded live with the good folks at Evergreen Action in early August. We wanted to bring our listeners up to speed today, because President Joe Biden has pledged to cut carbon pollutions in half by 2030 and get to 100% clean power by 2035. And now Congress has a chance to vote on the inflation reduction act of 2022 and get us 80% of the way there. We were all shocked last week when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Joe Manchin announced that they had a deal, that they had agreed to a reconciliation package that included historic climate investments. Vistile, if, when it passes, will be the most substantial U.S. climate legislation ever. By a long shot, it's got nearly $370 billion of climate and clean energy funding. And now we've got to get the Senate and House to vote and pass the deal immediately. And to break down what's in the inflation reduction act, we are thrilled to share a conversation Leah had with a powerhouse group of our friends in the movement. We were lucky to host three legendary climate champions, including Senator Ed Markey, Representative Premier League Jayapal, and Reverend Lennox Yearwood Junior. Look, this bill is not perfect. It has some fossil fuel concessions that are not good. And we'll talk about that in this episode too. But we can't let perfect be the enemy of the good. This climate deal is our last best chance, attacking the climate crisis at the federal level. The conversation we're about to share lays out the tremendous scope of this opportunity. Now let's dig in. Thanks for everybody for joining us. It's great to be here with all of you. I know we're also live on YouTube and we're going to be putting this up on the A Matter of Degrees podcast where Rev. Yew Wood has already been on the show. He's an old time or so to speak. And he has his own awesome show too. But we're joined here today by three awesome panelists. First, we have Representative Jayapal, who is the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She's really led the Progressive Coalition to unprecedented levels of influence in Congress. It's been amazing to watch. And before this, she was the state-a-state senator in Washington State, working on issues like Washington State Boating Rights Act. And before that, she founded and was the executive director of One America, one of the largest immigration advocacy organizations in the country. She is the first South Asian-American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. And one of only two dozen naturalized citizens currently serving in the United States of Congress. Her leadership has been central to getting transformational climate investments front and center in Congress. And Rep Jayapal just thank you so much for joining us. And thank you for everything that you do. Thank you so much. It's always great to be with you and always great to be with the Rev. Oh, I totally agree. And with that, I have to introduce Rev Yearwood. So Rev Yearwood is a member of the Evergreen Advisory Board, like myself. And he is the president and founder of the Hip Hop Caucus. He's a leader in campaigns, calling for investment from fossil fuels, increasing diversity in the climate movement, ensuring everyone has clean water and clean air and international efforts to address climate change. She's got a very cool podcast as well. So Rev, thank you so much for joining us today. There's always an honor to be with you and always to the Congressman and the Senator. This is a blessing to be in this conversation, having this very important dialogue. Totally agree. And very shortly, we will also be joined by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, who has been a long-term champion of climate and clean energy in Congress. He served for 37 years in the House of Representatives and has been in the Senate now since 2013, where he has continued to consistently fight for meaningful climate legislation. Back in 2009, he was the co-author of course of the Wax & Markey bill, which was the only comprehensive climate legislation to ever pass a chamber of Congress until recently when we did the Bill Back Better Act in the House. He can often be spotted alongside Brasters activists at climate rallies. And so thank you so much, Senator Markey. When you're here shortly, we will be very excited to also have you join us. So, okay, so today we're here to talk about the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. It's a new thing in some ways. It's an old thing in other ways, right? We've already worked on this bill in many ways in the House when it was Bill Back Better. But now it's a new thing and there's been some new provisions that aren't so great added to it. But we still have retained a lot of the really fantastic things that the House worked so hard on. There's a lot of critical climate investments and clean energy investments in this bill, almost $370 billion. And you know, it's really hard to break it all down. So I don't think we're going to be able to because there's a lot of different programs in this bill. If you want to understand what's in it, I would really recommend this Evergreen explainer about the climate impact of the Inflation Reduction Act. It's up on the website at EvergreenAction.com and it just walks you through in many pages, but not nearly as many pages as the bill. What is in the bill? So representative Jaipal, let's turn to you first. I know your time is limited today. We are so grateful for to have you join us. Could you talk about what these climate investments would mean for everyday Americans? How it would help everyday Americans save on their energy bills? And what it will do to help us address the climate crisis? Absolutely. And I have to say that I'm first of all, I got to do a little brag on the Congressional Progressive Caucus because as you know, we have 100 members. And if it wasn't for us, in the first round, we never would have had a reconciliation bill with many of the provisions that the good provisions that are contained within this bill. If you remember, when the infrastructure bill came to us from the Senate, it was passed with a lot of bipartisan votes, but there was no bill for what we were calling it the time bill back better that was the climate investment. And the Progressive Caucus really stood up time and time again to make sure that we got a bill negotiated. We got a bill drafted and we got a bill passed in the House. And now finally, the Senate is coming along. And yes, it's not quite everything that we had put in there, but it is a significant step forward. So this bill contains billions of dollars worth of consumer facing incentives that would help us to reduce emissions and energy bills. And the studies that we've seen have shown that 41% of inflation has been driven by fossil fuels. So when we talk about this bill making investments in clean energy, remember that that is one of the biggest components of price increases that consumers are facing. So that's a really, really important point. How does it, how does it do the work that it does? It includes tax credits that will make it cheaper for low and middle income Americans to get clean energy technologies like an electric vehicle or a heat pump or an induction stove or any of the other technologies that are out there. And if people adopt those technologies, it not only reduces emissions and the estimate is that it will reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030. And that does not take into account the accelerator effect that researchers are now showing. If people adopt these technologies, it will save them an average of about $1,800 a year on energy bills. So it's directly combating the high cost of these fossil fuels that are passed on to the consumer. And the benefits from my constituents, really, for the whole country go beyond the direct investments as I was just kind of alluding to. There are researchers at Oxford that have just released some studies that have found that the more renewable technology that we build technologies like solar panels and wind turbines and electric vehicles, the cheaper they get to produce. This is not the case in the fossil fuel industry where prices have basically remained the same for about 140 years if you adjust for inflation. But the inflation reduction act puts this massive investment into renewable energy that will dramatically lower renewable energy costs by more than just the monetary value of the tax credits. And that will accelerate the declining cost of renewable energy for decades to come, which will save Americans money well beyond the expiration of the tax credits. And it'll create a tipping point where clean energy ultimately will decline in cost well below what we currently pay for fossil fuels. Now, it also includes four billion for environmental justice initiatives and historically disadvantaged communities that have faced the worst effects of climate change. That's a huge priority for me and my constituents because we have a lot of areas in and around the district that have experienced the harms of air pollution, heat waves, wildfires, and superfund sites. So if you really look at the totality and it's about, if you look at all the different places where we're investing in environmental justice, is the amount is closer to about 60 billion for environmental justice initiatives. And so all of these different components, when you put them together, will be the biggest investment in taking on the climate crisis, protecting our people, protecting our planet, and doing it with justice for the most disadvantaged at the center. It will be a huge deal. And that's just on the climate front. We're not talking even about the other pieces that are in the bill around lowering healthcare costs, continuing the Affordable Care Act subsidies, lowering the cost of prescription drug pricing. For the first time, by the way, making big pharma pay for the, you know, making big pharma negotiate with Medicare to lower the cost of at least some of the drugs. We're hoping that insulin will be in there as well, though it's not in this bill, that it would ultimately be added in. And of course, making big corporations pay at least 15% corporate minimum tax. So lots of really good stuff in this bill, but certainly the climate provisions are essentially, you know, one of the big highlights of what we're going to be able to do here. Thanks for raising up those other issue areas too. You know, there's been a lot of movement from across, you know, progressive groups, folks trying to get, you know, childcare tax credits and home health aids and lots of things. Some of which fell out tragically, but you know, there's still good things in this bill on the social side too. And, you know, that's going to be really exciting in terms of lowering costs for folks. And yeah, that $1,800 figure you came up with, if folks want to look at that, it's actually rewiring America that has that figure, which looked at how much money American households can save if they adopt all these clean energy technologies that the bill is going to make more accessible. So representative, I'd love to also hear you talk a little bit about the politics, so to speak. So, you know, that might be your expertise. And so, I know, you know, this bill first has to pass the Senate and we're hoping that maybe we might see vote on that by the end of this week. And we're going to have Senator Markey talk about the Senate side of things when he's here. But can you share any insight that you have about how this might be received in the House, especially in your role as the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus? Well, look, I think that the bill is the result of years of progressive activism and policy proposals on how to tackle climate change. And I really hope that everybody that is listening in today watching, listening to this conversation, take some credit for the work that you've done to really move the movement forward. There is nothing that passes in Congress that isn't the result of an enormous movement pushing things forward. And so that's the first thing. I think, you know, I mentioned the Billback Better Act, that was the reconciliation bill that passed the House. That had 555 billion in climate investments. This is lower than that, but it is still historic. The Inflation Reduction Act has a historic 369 billion for transformative climate action. But most of the changes between the two bills are decreases in amounts for specific programs. But most of the programs are retained in this version of the bill. So I think that is going to help a lot of our progressives feel really good about the bill. And as I mentioned before, it's got billions of dollars worth of tax credits for American families that are going to save money, reduce emissions, and energy bills. It also, I think, one of the key issues was making sure that there's direction to ensure that the investments reach communities, where fossil fuels were the main source of income, and ensure just transition. That was a top priority for the Progressive Caucus. And again, here, it includes that focus on environmental justice and historically disadvantaged communities. So I think all of those are going to be very well received. Now, I don't want to tell you that the bill is perfect. It's not. It does contain some provisions that require fossil fuel lease sales. And the sales are problematic for people. But I want to point out that the amount of sales in the bill are about a quarter lower for offshore leasing than the historic 10-year average and about half of historic onshore lease sales. And the bill also increases the royalty rates and costs for fossil fuel producers. And so another way that the bill will speed up the tipping point where renewable energy becomes less expensive than fossil fuels. So as we push for bold climate action at a fossil free future, it is OK to be angry about those provisions. It's not that we have to be happy with those provisions. However, I do want people to understand that this bill in totality represents enormous progress, not perfection. And we still have to fight to achieve a fossil free future. And this bill is a big, big step along that path. The most important thing to remember is that the fossil fuel parts of the bill are estimated to add only 1% to emissions by 2040. And the rest of the bill is actually expected to drastically reduce emission levels, which is what would allow us to reach that 40% reduction in emissions. So it's about 80% of the initial goal that President Biden had laid out. And so in talking to my colleagues in the Progressive Caucus, we really feel like this is on whole, on totality, very much of a big victory and a big step forward. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to share those facts with us and what's going on in the house. I do really just want to lift up the Congressional Progressive Caucus, folks in the CPC really held really strong, including in the squad. When the infrastructure bill was moving through, a lot of us said no climate, no deal. We said that we've got to get this climate bill over the finish line. And it really was the progressives who understood that moment. And your leadership has been so critical in that. And I know too when the Clean Electricity Performance Program fell out of the bill, folks in the Congressional Progressive Caucus were really on the front lines of saying, we got to find more ways to cut carbon pollution in this bill. We got to make sure we put more stuff in. And I really just saw that leadership. And I think you guys made the bill a lot stronger. Of course, it had to go to the Senate where the house always has to deal with stuff going to the Senate and how they mess it up. But I think you're right that there's a lot that's really good here. So I don't want to keep you longer than you have. So thank you so much for joining me in the rev. And we're holding office hours in a bit here because we're going to wait for Senator Mark to come join us. But it's lovely to see you. Thank you for your leadership. I don't know, Rev, if you want to give any closing remarks before the representative drops off. And then me and you can start to have a conversation. Well, I just want to say, I think Congressman, again, I join with Dr. Stokes as saying, I think that your leadership and those other progressive caucus have been very important. And I think, as you know, when we talk last time, it is my job and our job in the streets to push on those in the suites. And so we hope you understand, if we're still pushing you on some of those provisions, I'm sure you want that in some cases. You want to be pushed. You want to, because if you're being pushed and you go up the chain and tell others, hey, they're pushing me hard. So I just want to say thank you for what you've done. Please let your colleagues know that. But also let them know that this is a piece of the puzzle. And we have so much more to do. So please continue to know that, say, the end of the road, this is just the beginning. That's absolutely right. And I just, I have to say something in response to that, because I, you know, I was an activist for 20 years. And I'm still an activist. I'm just inside Congress being an activist. And look, I don't think that there's really nothing that Congress does where we can say any of us, inside, outside, wherever we are. Oh, that's enough. We're good now. I mean, it's just not the way it works because you got to get 50 votes. You got to get 60 votes in the Senate, unless it's a reconciliation bill. Then you got to get 50 votes. And so that is really hard. And so I want to just say that the work we have to do is now we got to elect two more Democrats who are willing to change and get rid of the filibuster. So we can have a simple majority. And we can actually pass transformative policies like what was in the original billback better bill, on climate, on childcare, on housing. I mean, imagine 100, this bill does have some investment, a billion dollars, I think it is in clean energy, you know, in housing and really bringing housing forward with clean energy. But the original billback better had $150 billion to invest in housing. So we are not giving up on any of that. I never consider myself to be done on anything because what we get done in Congress is generally, it's meaningful, it's progress. We're going to push this bill over the finish line. But it's very rarely the end of the road on any issue. So I hope people are fired up and ready to go for the next couple of months because we need bigger majorities. We need to get rid of the Jim Crow Legacy filibuster. We need bigger majorities in the Senate to do that and we need bigger majorities in the house to make sure that things don't get watered down even in the house. So with you, Rev, and don't be satisfied. Keep pushing. - No, no, that's what we're doing too. And let's get what we can get done done, but let's keep pushing for more. Thank you so much, Representative. I think that's right. Voting rights is so important too. And we've got to make sure that we protect our democracy because that's going to be really hard to protect our planet if we can't protect our democracy. So the elections are really important and we got to hold the house and we really need to expand our majority in the Senate so that we don't have to go through one very difficult person. Wonderful. Well, thank you for joining us. We really appreciate it. Hope you have a great rest of your day. Rev and I are gonna hold it down until the great Senator joins us and thank you for coming. - Thank you. - So, Rev, let's get into what we were just talking about in more detail here. We don't wanna dismiss the fact that this bill is a compromise, right? It's not the bill that you would have written. It's not the bill that I would have written. It's not the bill that Representative Giappal wrote in which passed the house and there's no longer a life. It had to be one that got the approval of Senator Joe Manchin. We always knew that and we know what his interests are. They're not the same as mine and yours or really the climate movements. So there have been some really not great provisions added to this bill, particularly leasing requirements that are going to particularly impact frontline communities. And we have to hold that reality and talk about that. And then, but then I also wanna ask you and there's a bit of a compound question so holding these two complex feelings or two complex realities at the same time. We've also seen a bigger environmental justice investment in this bill than we've ever seen before with the $60 billion. So how are you grappling with those two things at the same time? How does that make you feel sort of about the bill overall? What do you kind of think about it? - Well, you know, play one of the things I think is important that we need to look at. I think as a movement, we may wanna take a step back even before we get to the policy and how this policy was created. I think as a movement, we have to do a bit of job. And I think our success is in that. I think the more that we come together and are as one, are more solidarity, then I think it will make it harder for those to break down what they want to do. And so I think there needs to be an acknowledgement as you're rightfully putting forth that we have to acknowledge that particularly those and the Gulf Coast, those in the Arctic, having their own words been thrown under the bus. They feel that, they feel that pain, they feel that trauma. Many of us will be first heard about this are kind of exuberance in our excitement, didn't take in their pain as a movement. So I think we need to acknowledge that first. I think we need to acknowledge that. How this came about what was done even from not even the policy, but just as a movement, as a collective, as a family, as a community, we didn't do us, we didn't do good and we still need to do some things to fix that. That's the first day. I think secondly, I think that because of that, I think that, you know, certain mansion and others in the philosophy industry took advantage of that. I think that these provisions, you know, are going to hurt many of the communities that are vulnerable, frontline, frontline communities. And so we need to have those conversations about what needs be done in that regard. Take a look at how it links in both the advancement of clean energy along with the fossil few components. So would that be in said though? I think this is the thing. I think politically, I think that this clearly is the one word that I've been giving this is momentum. The momentum behind this is something that are moving and someone who was there in 2010, regarding with the ACES, with the Waxman, Markey Bill, I remember where we were. And it was actually after that movement, when we needed things from the movement to keep us going. When that bill failed, it was the kind of the process between Keystone XL pipeline and also the Bianco campaign that was taking place with Sierra Club and many others. That helped push things forward at that time and then really groups came on board that really kept it going. I think we need to do the same thing here, but even though this legislation, and we need to get to be as strong as possible, that doesn't mean that we're still not fighting for halfway climate emergency. It doesn't mean that we're still not fighting for legislation that can come behind us, that can really look at how we're funding these fossil fuels project through the finance aspects. And I do think there are some things that are coming out now that we have to also look at the pipeline, the mountain valley pipeline, that we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, listen, we have to bring us all together and say that we're going to fight. We're going to push this forward, the mandates in this are historic. And it does create a historic climate deal, but we cannot stop there. We have to make sure I move it, understands that, that we're not throwing them under the bus at this critical time. - Yeah, I think Abby Dillon, who's the head of Earth Justice, has written a little bit about this too. She works very much, Earth Justice works really on the front lines of these communities trying to stop projects. And she's grappling too with holding these two things simultaneously. And it doesn't mean we're not going to keep fighting projects. It doesn't mean that environmental reviews aren't going to exist for project developments that we're not going to keep fighting. We are. I think that's really an important thing to send it. So Senator Markey, thank you for joining us. Rev and I are holding office hours currently, having fun. We just spent time with Representative Jayapal and tragically you missed her. But it's wonderful to have you here. You're well known, of course, for the Waxman Markey Bill. And the Rev, normally, although he didn't do it this time, he normally calls it the Markey Waxman Bill. That's right. - I do, I do. - He does, that's what it goes. And my olds to Senator Markey, I say, I do that on purpose, actually. - Yes, he does. He reverses it. He calls it the Markey Waxman Bill. So he wants to give you the extra credit or the blame. I don't know, I'm just kidding. - No, no, no. It was a piece there. - Exactly. 'Cause that's the most important bill we've seen in the past. And you know, you've been there a long time fighting. You missed your bio, but everybody else heard it. We know how long you've been in the trenches. And so you tried to pass that bill through the Senate and you saw it fail. So you know what that's like. You know, after all this time pushing for progress and Congress, can you tell us what it feels like for you, what it means to you to see a deal like this on the table? - Well, it's an honor to be with all of you. Thank you, Leah and Reverend, you know, just preaching God's message to please preserve his creation. And I thank you for your incredible inspirational leadership on those issues. Dan Pramila, that's just such a phenomenal job providing the leadership for the progressive caucus, but for our whole nation. So if we're gonna come back to actual marking. The, you know, the, you know, the kind of the best effort up until now, here was I go. I go was a 40%, a 42% reduction in greenhouse gases by the year 2030, 42%. Now, we tried hard to get a past, but the United States Senate at that time had an incurable political pathology that made it impossible for it to get through. And so getting to 60 votes is impossible in this place. I now serve here. I can now tell you the problems that exist over here, which is why moving down to only 50 votes is so critical, because we're not getting Republicans on climate change. So here's the good news. We did work hard to get extensions of solar tax credits and wind tax credits over the years. Each time haltingly granted to the Democrats as part of larger deals that didn't result in the full deployment of those technologies the way we would have liked to, but nonetheless, we made substantial progress from 2009 until 2022. In fact, in 2021, we deployed 24,000 new megawatts of solar. There were only 2,000 total megawatts of solar in the United States in 2009. So we had done some good work to kind of compensate and the states had done some good work. But the problem was we were still far behind. Here's the good news. This bill, if we get it over the finish line and we need all of the energy of everyone who is on this call, we actually reduce greenhouse gases by 40% by 20%, not 42% of where it's going to work. But because this bill is so big, it's going to allow us to sprint these final eight years, sprint to get us to that 40% reduction. Now we know it really requires 50%, but at the same time, we also know that a half a loaf, which is what this is, will give us the sustenance we need in order to get the whole loaf because we're right and they're wrong that the jobs are going to be created by the millions. The Greenhouse gases are going to come down. We'll be providing the global leadership and we'll be providing environmental justice to communities like Chelsea and Roxbury and Boston, but it'll be in Harlem, South Central LA. It'll be everywhere in the country in a way that's going to build a new political machine in our country around these issues because when we come back in three or four more years, it'll be totally different because of all the all electric vehicles and solar and wind and battery jobs that have been created and the political dynamic on this is going to change. And so that'll give us the capacity to come back and try to pass more legislation that gets us up to the 50%. So from my perspective, the movement and thank you movement built the momentum, thank you Reverend for using momentum for this moment for us to be able to get this past and we have an ability here to keep fighting to get this past and then use it as the springboard to move on to the future. So for years, what we've been saying is when oil and gas and coal have had tax breaks for 100 years, don't criticize us about socialism. Madness, socialism. And in this bill, we get wind and solar and battery and an all electric vehicle and transmission tax breaks for 10 years. So once that playing field is level, once all the investors can see what will happen if we can get this past and it's predictable over a 10 year period, it's going to telescope the time frame for us to get this done. So I just feel absolutely great about it. Let me put it like this. It's a great bill that's imperfect. It's almost like I constitution in order to form a more perfect union. It's like contradictory inside of it itself. Halking something be more perfect, right? So that's our job, right? It's something that we're going to have to continue to work on. But I thank everyone for joining us. So we now have the recipe for future success. I think that's so right. This is really about a first step in the right direction. And one thing that's in the bill is, of course, an enormous amount for manufacturing in the United States for wind and solar and batteries and heat pumps my personal favorite. And that's going to create manufacturing, electric vehicles. How could I forget? That's going to create manufacturing all across this country, good paying jobs, hopefully union jobs. And then who knows, maybe some Republican states, maybe some Republican senators, the politics are going to start to shift because they're going to have constituencies in their own backyard pushing for the right thing, which is moving to the clean energy industries of the 21st century, which is what we're all trying to do here. So I think that's so right. I know we've only got the senator for about 10 more minutes. And then the revenue I will be taking some questions from the audience. But before we shift to that, I'd love to hear from both of you. Starting with you, Senator, what's the one thing you really want people to take away from the bill? Like if they only really understood one thing at the end of this event, what do you think is a really key takeaway? Ah, well, again, our goal has always been three parts. One, dramatic reduction, inhibitions, it does it. Two, creating millions of jobs, most of them union. It does it. And three, spending tens of billions of dollars, 60 billion to immediate environmental injustice. It does it. So that's the test. It passes the test. And for me, I've been working hard. I'm glad you raised it. I've been working hard to make sure we have domestic production of solar, domestic production of offshore wind technologies here in the United States. And so I worked hard with Sheldon White House to keep getting the offshore wind tax break extended and fits and starts. And we got it done. But nothing like this bill, it's 10 years guaranteed. And nothing like this bill, because I was able to get in 10 billion dollars to have domestic American production of the technology, not imported from China, not imported from some other place. We would hear made in America with union workers. And there's also, which doesn't really get mentioned that often. And we talk about the tax price for wind and solar and cars and batteries. But there's a $27 billion climate bank that's in this bill, $27 billion. And that's going to be used. And that's something I put in the bill. And it's $27 billion that is going to be used to give out low interest loans all across the country. McKenzie Capitalism incorporated. McKenzie says that for every dollar that comes out of the climate bank, it's going to unleash $7 to $10 as a private sector investment. So then we're talking like another $250 billion in investments in our country that will be a small town in Ohio. Just saying, we want to over, we want to completely do over our public housing stock. OK, good. Comes to the climate bank. We'll make sure you get the funding to do it. So the high as possible energy efficiency standard are a community that wants to install a solar panels on their city or town down. Come to the climate bank. We'll help you to finance it so that it's affordable for the private sector to come in and to do it. So it's a provision that's kind of hidden a little bit, but it's close to 8% of the whole bill. Translating. That's there. And ultimately, it has a potential to have an explosive, clean energy response in thousands of small towns all across the country who can apply. And it can be the poorest towns that need the money the most. And they've always been wondering where is it going to come from and the climate bank will be there to help them. So it's something that I feel great about doesn't get the attention, but it's right up there with these other provisions in terms of the magnitude of the historic impact, which it's going to have. And by the way, with members of the House, I was able to do that. I was able to build in $33 million for environmental justice mapping for the whole country. So I got that money in there too. So there'll be a map of the entire country that is created of where the environmental justice crimes have been committed. Then it'll make it easier for us to target this money to make sure that it's going into those communities. So I'm very proud of that as well. So if you ask me for one thing, it's hard because it's okay. One big takeaway. And I know your office actually did a lot of really great work on the environmental justice provision specifically. I want to thank you for doing that. I think that was really important. And I know your office really played an important leadership role there. Rev, what about you? If you wanted people to take one thing away from this bill, what's the big picture here? What do you want people to take away? Well, I mean, there's a number of things. This is a historic investment. And I will join Senator Markey in regards to the clean energy sustainability accelerator. That investment will create a $27 billion dollar green investment fund with the focus on deployment of clean energy with approximately almost 55% of the investment is targeted to disadvantage. That's right. So that's a big deal. And obviously the environmental justice parties, the block grant process is not so great because it creates competition and because we've taken out race as an indicator of some of the factors involved, it may create some problems. But healthy ports, obviously the clean energy tax credits. I mean, there was a number of things. I think that clearly though, as Senator mentioned, there are some problems. There's some major problems in this process. And we'll get to that when we get to our process. I actually want to say this for Senator Markey. I actually want to encourage. I mean, I've been out there with him both inside the Senate and I've been out there with him outside the Senate as well. And I just want to say something Senator Markey and to you and all your colleagues who are fighting for this. You know, you are now in a new legacy in which you have to fight not only for this present generation but for future generations. And I can tell you, as long as I've known you and watched you, you've done that. You haven't pulled back. And we in history have now within for women's rights. You've seen how we've had it. the keep fighting each step of the way for gay rights and queer rights and trans rights keep fighting every step of the way. I'll receive from our time from slavery to the issue of this black lives mattering. We've had to fight every step of the way for voting rights every step of the way. So this is the same thing. The difference over there is a time clock. To that brings a different a kind of anxiety. This is physics. This is science. This is something that we can't say, you know, we'll get it right in 2060 or 2070. So I just hope you just know that we continue to employ you from the movement to keep fighting hard and that certain poison pills that we hear about really are hard poison pills because we know what that means for our environment from the Gulf Coast or Arctic to the pipelines. We know what that means. So I'd this encourage you to do what you've been doing. This keep fighting. Thank you Reverend and you know people say to me when are you going to stop and I say well when I get old but I don't have any plans to get old and ultimately it's not your age it's the age of your ideas and that's what this is all about. Our idea has now come of age and and this success is because of everyone's work but it's just a foundation for the additional work that has to be done and that's true in civil rights. It's true in women's rights. It's true in environmental justice issues. Okay, it never ends. Never. Okay, so we just have to accept the fact that we're going to do the absolute best that we can and then pass on the baton but get most of the work done before we complete that effort. So thank you Reverend. Well, thank you so much and Senator, I don't know how much longer you've got. Do you need to drop off at this point? I think I have another couple of minutes if you need me. Okay, well maybe we'll take one audience question before we let you go. Here's one maybe for you. How do we best influence US senators who could be sitting on the fence when it comes to supporting this bill? You know, I think certain folks are thinking about certain Arizona senator. That's my that's my hunch. I don't know what you think. What do you think about that Senator? Marky, what can we do to help close the deal here? Well, that's great. Well, here's the thing. We're not going to get any Republican votes. Okay, they they're the GOP. They're the gas and oil party. They're the GOP. They're the gang of polluters. This 50 of them then are going to vote for the bill. The gas and oil party. I just got that. That was good. That's who they are. They can't help themselves. They're incoheratable, right? So we're going to work hard this week and we're we'll get the 50 votes and then we'll have Kamala Harris sit up there for as many votes as this is necessary to get a pass. And we'll figure this out with Senator one way or the other. So with our fingers crossed, we're going to have a historic victory. And we need everyone out there though to not take this for granted. Keep keep your energy high. Be doing anything you can to make sure that our country and all the Senate, the Democrats understand how important it is to you to you. Okay, and what your expectations are for the completion of this bill and and that it's done in within the next week. And I guess the more that you can all show the benefits of this legislation, show how it's going to touch people's lives and do it with blogs, do it with TikTok, do it with op ads. It will show that the movement works, okay, that it doesn't stop until it understands in a very sophisticated way that it's all about the votes on the floor of the Senate. And again, I can't thank you all enough. Thank you Leah for everything you do. Thanks for everyone on here. And Reverend and to Reverend Yearwood, just you're just an inspiration. And I hear him, you know, I will say this. I was with him a couple of years ago when he was talking about, you know, the children who had died and up in New York City and New Jersey because of the the Superstorm Sandy. But that's what we're seeing in Kentucky right now. That's what we're seeing everywhere. We're going to continue to see it. And I just think it's so important that Reverend Yearwood, you know, just keeps this moral component to what we're doing. This is the economic, environmental, national security, but moral issue of our time. And that's why Reverend Yearwood is such an indispensable national and international leader. And we thank you, Reverend Yearwood for all of your great work. Thank you, Senator. Thank you for joining us and for your very kind words and for your imploring us to keep pushing. You know, we're going to talk about this at the end. There's a very easy way you can call Congress. You could even call Senator. Markey, I don't know if he needs to hear from you, but you can go to call the number four climate.com. And you just put in your zip code and you get routed to your senators, you get routed to your representatives. This one stop shopping, very easy. And maybe get your friends from Arizona to do it. Your friends from West Virginia, I don't know. Those might be some people to ask. So we're going to continue along with some audience questions for the next 15 minutes with me and the Rev. You're stuck with the best people or the worst who could say of the four people in the call so far. So let's see what's a good question. Let's see. So Rev, here's one for you and then maybe I'll do one next. What are the ways that the federal government as a whole can address injustices? Whether that's some of the things that the bill is going to do that's not good, like the leasing provisions that we talked about. How can we make more progress on justice 40? What are some immediate regulatory things that the federal government can do that don't require new legislation so that we can keep making progress on justice? That's kind of the question for you. Yeah. Well, I think first one thing that we were pushing last week, the weeks that come together now, is that we are in a climate emergency. You heard it sending message. What's happening in Kentucky, Missouri, in California right now, the largest wealth are ever across our globe. We are already in a climate emergency. So existing oil gas and coal fields already have more fossil fuel supplies than our climate can afford. We know that. So I think from a regulatory standpoint, I think putting forth having the president put forth a climate emergency, I think is one of the things that would immediately begin to unlock a number of things that would help him and the executive branch to do some things to stop where we are right now in that aspect. I think the other thing that would be very important. There are small things that we've mentioned. There are certain things like, this is our post office fleet, for example. I don't know what a guy who was still there in that position, with that's one of the conversations I have. But clearly, having the fleet and having our U.S. federal fleet be EV vehicles, beginning to sign those contracts. That would immediately have an impact. Getting off of the fossil fuel and gas powered trucks that we're using within our federal fleet. So there are a number of things. I can go on and on about that. But I do think the one thing that's important here, that we do need to kind of get into. Many people, I mean, the one thing that I do hope that's there, I know that there is a part of this legislation is to sell at least the two million acres of our public lands and offshore. I think we need to offset that. We need to figure out how that can be done. One thing for me, I think that being from Louisiana up on the go, I think we should be looking at next things or how we stop petrochemicals in that regard. We should look at it very seriously or stopping the expense of petrochemicals. Those are some of the things that we can do and begin to look at as now in your movement, but also a country in that aspect. Yeah, a couple things on a matter of degrees, which some folks will be listening to this podcast on the podcast. Because so it's meta, we're actually doing an episode this season on the petrochemical industry and the really terrible impacts it has, particularly on communities of color. So I totally agree with you. A lot of that is concentrated in the Gulf Coast and it's just poisoning communities, just terrible stuff. And a little bit of good news, there's actually three billion dollars in this bill for the postal fleet, greening stuff that the rep is talking about. That's the crazy thing about this bill. When you talk about $370 billion and there's $3 billion here and $3 billion there, it's like a really, really vast bill. It's hundreds of pages long. There's a lot of good stuff in here and it's it would be hard for us to talk about all of it. So that's where we're talking about this excitement in some levels. Because you look in a provision and you're like, "Whoa, there's $3 billion for green usb.s. That's awesome." And you look over here and you're like, "Wow, $3 billion for ports, cleaning up ports. That's awesome." And there's so much of that. I mean, I had forgotten, for example, about the, I think it was 45. million or 35 million that the senator talked about for the mapping, the right environmental justice mapping, you know, that's not a lot of money in the 370 billion, but that really matters. And that's in the bill. And if you got to go find that thing to remember like, oh yeah, that priority of the movement that we've talked about, it's in the bill. Great. Well, I'll take the next question, which is how can we know that the bill will reduce more emissions, more pollution than it causes? Okay, this is a big question that we kind of have been talking around. And I'm going to talk about that. So there's there's a bunch of different modeling groups that have been modeling the bill all the way along. They modeled it when it was bill back better, you know, they modeled, I don't know if they even modeled some of the plans in the democratic primary, I don't know, they've been doing this stuff a long time. I'll say that. The groups are the Rodeum group, energy innovation, and at Princeton, Jesse Jenkins has a specific model as well. So we got three folks who are doing a lot of this work. Just today, we had a very comprehensive study that came up from energy innovation, which is a really credible group. These people care about the climate as much as us as much as anybody. And they did a study. And they looked really directly at sort of the good versus the bad. They said, first of all, top line, that Senator Schumer's estimate is correct, that the bill could very likely hit that 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, which is what we want to do, right? We want to cut carbon pollution below 2005 levels, ideally in half by 2030. And this bill will get us to that 40% target. So that's good. We're going to have that last 10% to do. But that's really good. But they also said, well, what about these leasing provisions? What about these terrible things that mentioned stuck into the bill? How bad are they from a, you know, greenhouse gas pollution perspective? We could also ask how bad are they for communities, which is bad, very bad. But just from a greenhouse gas pollution perspective, how bad are they? And what they said was that the good stuff in the bill, the emissions cuts, is 24 times as big and good as the bad stuff is bad. Okay, so what does that mean? Well, I think it's important. And the representative, Jayapal talked a bit about this to wrap our heads around these leasing provisions. You know, these were new. A lot of us, well, none of us knew that they were happening because they were in secret negotiations with Senator, Manchin, and Senator Schumer. And that was it. So nobody knew what these were. So let's talk about them. Well, it's a requirement to offer leases 2 million onshore, like the rep was saying, and 60 million offshore. As representative Jayapal said, that's about half for the onshore of historic average and about three quarters compared to historic average for offshore. Neither is good. We don't want to have lease sales. However, when we, when we talk about this, it doesn't mean that all this stuff will be developed. It means that companies could buy them. They could develop them. Historically, about one to 3% of these leases that are offered are actually bought. And then they've got to go through a process to actually develop their project, which includes environmental assessments, right? It includes financing. There are other places in the process where we are going to be able to as a movement make a difference. So think about, for example, Earth Justices work trying to stop a lot of fossil fuel projects. They are going to be in there fighting that stuff. That's what Abby Dillon has been saying. Think about the work that Rev has been doing and others have been doing to stop financing in the fossil fuel industry. This is something that Bill McKibben has been working so much on, right? We're going to get these companies to not have the capital that they need to build these projects. And what fossil fuel companies are doing right now is making tons of money, rip and off everybody, gouging people at the pump. And they're not actually saving that money for a rainy day. They're not saving it to develop some offshore lease or something like that. They're actually giving it away to their their shareholders through dividends, basically, which to me is a hopeful sign that this industry is starting to realize that they're a little bit screwed. They're not going to have a bunch of great projects to invest in. They're not going to have momentum on their side anymore. And that's how capitalism for its bad sides works, right? You got to be growing and getting bigger all the time. This industry is going to start contracting. And we are also going to eat into demand for fossil fuels with all the other provisions in the bill, because we're going to get electric vehicles on the streets. We're going to get heat pumps in our houses. We're going to get induction stoves and we're going to crush the demand for fossil fuels. So, you know, this is scary. These are not good provisions. I would not have written this bill this way. The rev would not. I'm sure the senator, the good senator and the good representative. Well, I know they would not have written the bill this way. But we've got to get 50 votes in the Senate if we want to do anything right now. And unfortunately, the 50 of vote is somebody who has a lot of interest in fossil fuels. So this is what we've ended up with. And, you know, that's why various modeling groups, like energy innovation, are asking that question of how do we weigh the good and the bad. And they're really asking that in a neutral way. You know, they are trying to answer it empirically with science. They're not saying it, you know, for any other reason, they're not embedded with the fossil fuel industry. You know, they just want to answer the question. So I think that you give us some hope. I know it's not easy. And I really hear what the rev said earlier, you know, the communities on the front lines of this, that they are the ones who have to take this hit that sucks. But just because leases are offered does not mean they're bought just because they're bought does not mean they're developed. We can fight this stuff. And we are going to keep fighting this stuff. And it really is the first step in a process of, you know, getting rid of the fossil fuel industry. I'm sorry, that's our secret plan. But it really, it really is. So I want to turn to another question for the rev. This will probably be our last one. I love you to talk a bit about, you know, what do you want to see happening next? Let's say this bill does pass in the next week or two, you know, in many ways, the Biden administration has been holding themselves back a little bit trying to wait for this negotiation to play out. So what do we want the Biden and men to be doing next when this bill hypothetically passes? You know, like you said, the struggle continues. The movement keeps fighting. What else should we be focused on as a movement? Well, I think there's on this is on the federal level, but I think I missed the saying this earlier, there's a lot of things that we can bet are happening on the state and local level. And so we should we should not forget about that. And that we should continue to work within our state houses and our local governments to continue to push for a strong clean energy legislation on those levels as well. That's one thing. Two, I want to go back. I think it's important. I think for our movement, I think our movement has come since a long way. I've been in this for so long since since Hurricane Katrina. And and I will tell you, I just really feel now that our movement needs to make sure that there is a spirit of solidarity moving forward and that we are listening to frontline and fence line communities that we're putting forth black and brown and did this versus up front in this process. We must do better in that. That from a funding perspective that we're funding these organizations to be stronger in this moment, especially. I think that's the next step. And then the two of us would add would be democracy. I know a lot of people say, oh, don't source the vote, but I think that's it. I mean, the game is clearly 50 plus one. And so I think that we have to have a split. We must do everything we can to make sure that we're getting out the vote in this midterm election. We're making we must make sure that hopefully post this that we have a strong representation in cop in Egypt. And I think moving forth in 2023, our movement has to continue to fight and fight like I live depend on it because it does. I think that's the one thing. And I think that what we've seen from all the fights before this from the Dakota access pipeline to the Keystone pipeline to line to line three line six to the behelio pipeline and and men first to what people have been fighting against petrochemicals to what we're fighting from lead and Baltimore and Detroit. We from the Atlantic coast pipeline when we come together, we win. And I think that this is a this is that's our next step. We must continue to broaden our movement. And we must continue to do everything we can to win. And I believe we will. We have no choice but to win. No failures on an option. You know, we are not the option. That's right. Well, I really appreciate you staying rev for the office hours with the rev year would and Dr. Stokes. It was a lot of fun. Oh, we're digging over here now. You know, thank you for sharing that. I think it was really helpful. And I totally I do hear what you're saying. And I think it's really important. The struggle continues. You know, we got to keep pushing. And, you know, I want to I want to lift up what you said about voting. We did an event just last week when we thought we had no climate bill with Heather McTear Tony and she too said, you know, voting is so important. Folks need to get ready to vote. And that's super important, not just for our issues, but for democracy for so many issues. And then I also want to lift up that folks really should be calling Congress right now to say that you want a transformative climate investment. And you can do that if you just go to call the number four climate.com. You can send it to your friends. It's just a phone number. We don't collect anything. You just make a call. It routes you through. It's super easy. It takes two minutes. I think that that's a really powerful thing that we can be doing right now. These officers do not get that many calls. If you call, if you take those two minutes, it makes you impact. And you can ask your friends to do it. Your friends in Arizona, your friends in West Virginia, you know, you can ask them to make these phone calls. And it really doesn't take a lot of time. We've made it super easy for you. And it makes a big difference. So thank you, Rob, for sharing all of your. No, thank you, Doc. No, never forget folks. Either you shake policy or policy. will shape you. So let's go get them. That's right. I love it. Well, thanks for all of your work. Really always love being a conversation with you. And thanks to everybody for joining us. And if you enjoyed this conversation, it's going to be live on the Matter of Degrees podcast link hopefully in two days. And then we'll see what happens with these votes in the coming weeks. So thanks everybody. Stay healthy. Stay well and stay in the fight. Great to see everyone. Wow. Leah, thank you so much for bringing us that conversation. I mean, I think we've all been feeling a bit whiplashed by the past few weeks. I for once certainly needed that mixture of clarity and a little bit of hope. I couldn't agree more. And we'd like to give a big shout out to Evergreen Action for co-hosting the live show. And thanks to our guests for their expert insights and powerful call to action, including Senator Ed Markey, Representative Pramila Jaya Paul, and Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr. We're so grateful they could join us. And thanks to everyone out there listening in. If you, like us, are fired up about passing the inflation reduction act of 2022, please make your voice heard. Call your senators today. That's right. You can go to call the number four climate.com. And there's a phone number. It's really easy. It'll actually direct you to your senators and your representatives. That's all you got to do. Go to call the number four climate.com. And ask your friends and family to do the same. Now is the time for action. And come back to a matter of degrees for more calls to action and new episodes soon. We're gearing up to lunch season three in September, and we'll be sharing more stories for the climate curious. A matter of degrees is co-hosted by me, Dr. Leah Stokes, and me, Dr. Catherine Wilkinson. We are a production made in partnership with Frequency Media, the 2035 initiative at UC Santa Barbara, and the All We Can Save project. Thanks to our funders and supporters who make the show possible. Energy Foundation, Northlight Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the 11th hour project. If you're digging the show, please hop on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and give us a five star rating or leave us a review. Jordan Rizieri is our producer. Catherine Devine is our associate producer. Ena Garcusha is our supervising producer, and Michelle Corey is our executive producer. Matthew Ernest Filler is our lead audio engineer, mixer, and sound designer, with dialogue editing and additional mixing by Claire Bittigari Curtis. Rose Wong designed our new show art and Sean Marquand composed our theme song. Additional music came from blue.sessions. Research, fact checking, and production support by Amarachi Matthew and Danielle Lashulman. Come back soon as we tell more stories for the climate curious.