Hi John,

With August recess approaching, Congress is rapidly trying to hammer out the details of its bipartisan infrastructure framework and the complementary budget resolution that will fund, among other priorities, additional climate and clean energy infrastructure provisions initially outlined in President Biden’s American Jobs Plan.

But while policymakers are negotiating these critical pieces of legislation, voters are facing the realities of climate change in their own backyards. The devastating heat waves sweeping the west coast, particularly the Pacific Northwest, are revealing just how climate change will impact our daily lives. As weather patterns continue to shift, millions of Americans are seeing how our infrastructure--from the buildings that house us, to the grid that supplies our energy, to the pipes that provide our water--is ill-equipped to protect us from climate change.

SENATE DEMOCRATS LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR FRAMEWORK AND RECONCILIATION 

On Wednesday, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, led by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, passed a bill out of committee that would among other things modernize our power grid, provide funding for hydrogen production and carbon capture for industrial emissions, as well as supporting nuclear energy.

Many of the provisions included are supported by the Biden-Harris Administration and were a part of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan and will help lay the foundation for the upcoming bipartisan infrastructure legislation and reconciliation package.  

In addition, we learned that Senate Democrats will include Clean Electricity Standard-like policies in the reconciliation package that will help meet the President’s goal of a 100% clean power sector by 2035. A CES and the policies included in Sen. Manchin’s legislation are popular across the country and supported by Democratic and Republican voters alike. 

These policies will lay a strong foundation for the US to not only reach net-zero by mid-century, but rebuild the American economy and make it globally competitive, create new jobs, and support American workers. Third Way has worked on many of the policies included in these packages, particularly a CES, and look forward to its passage and eventual implementation.

HOW TO TALK ABOUT CLEAN ENERGY INNOVATION

Clean energy innovation is vital to meeting our decarbonization goals. 

But, unless you’re an engineer or a researcher building new, clean technology in real time, it’s difficult to visualize what exactly “clean energy innovation” looks like and how it will ultimately provide benefits to Americans. 

That’s why we created a helpful factsheet for communicating the benefits of clean energy innovation. As you’re speaking with voters, policymakers, and other stakeholders, you can use this sheet to inform your talking points for clean energy innovation and contextualize investments in clean energy research, development, and demonstration.

WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO: THE DAILY: THE HEATWAVE THAT HIT THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST 

Astead Herndon, along with journalists Sergio Olmos and Henry Fountain, explain why the recent Pacific Northwest heat wave was so unprecedented and how the occurrence was virtually impossible without climate change. They also explain that the infrastructure in cities like Portland, Oregon aren’t built for such extreme weather events. 

In addition, the journalists discuss how poor communities and communities of color in Portland were disproportionately impacted by the heatwave due to systemic policies, something our friends at the Union of Concerned Scientists explored a couple of years ago in their Killer Heat Report. That report and these recent events provides a snapshot of how marginalized communities will disproportionately suffer from the impacts of climate change without intentional and equitable infrastructure and climate policies: 

And there’s a socioeconomic aspect to all this. There’s a professor at Portland State University named Vivek Shandas, and he studies climate adaptation. And during the heatwave, he went around Portland with a thermometer. It’s not the kind you buy at the store. It’s a scientific-grade thermometer. And he took measurements of different parts of Portland, and he found that the wealthiest parts of Portland were, in some cases, 98, 99 degrees. Right?

And then he went to the working class parts of Portland, parts of Portland where the highest concentration of people of color, historically, have been disinvested. So not a lot of sidewalk, not a lot of tree covers, a lot of it exposed to sun, and a lot of concrete that just absorbs the sun’s radiation. He found a reading of 121 degrees in the poorest neighborhoods in Portland.  —Sergio Olmos, Freelance Journalist

🎙 LISTEN: THE DAILY: THE HEATWAVE THAT HIT THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

WHAT WE’RE READING

The High Price of Losing the War Against Urban Heat, Bloomberg CityLab + Green

The lurking threat to solar power’s growth, MIT Technology Review

Energy Department Targets Vastly Cheaper Batteries to Clean Up the Grid, New York Times

Biden’s clean energy plan would cut emissions and save 317,000 lives, The Guardian

Transportation Deep Decarbonization Initiative Synthesis, Clean Air Task Force