Good things are happening! Biden’s clean energy money makes it out the door, states shore up abortion rights and shrink Big Landlord, and heat pumps are pumping up the volume.

Clean Energy Money Escapes Dirty Hands

Before leaving office, President Joe Biden moved to protect $96.7 billion in Inflation Reduction Act clean energy grants from clawback by the next administration. The Biden Administration raced to sign those contracts — representing 84 percent of the total grants issued through the landmark climate law — in the past several months, ensuring continued deployment of clean energy even as President Donald Trump rolls back climate protections and works to rescind Biden’s landmark law that has provided hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to clean energy and other climate initiatives. 

Included among recently signed grants are $8.8 billion in Department of Energy funding for state energy efficiency rebate programs, $9.45 billion for a Department of Agriculture program to help electricity co-ops procure more clean energy, and $38 billion to the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas reduction fund. In total, the Energy Department has committed more than $70 billion in grants for clean energy projects through the Inflation Reduction Act and a separate bipartisan infrastructure law, while the Environmental Protection Agency has doled out $69 billion in grants to cut greenhouse gas emissions.