[Lwvcnmtopics] Fwd: Inflation Reduction Act Passes House

[Lora Lucero]

A League friend from Illinois writes .... and I believe his comments can be
echoed in NM

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: William Koehl <222koehl at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Aug 15, 2022, 3:07 PM
Subject: Re: Inflation Reduction Act Passes House
To: Myles <mpomeroy at san.rr.com>
Cc: Sandra Grasso-Boyd <grasso2430 at gmail.com>, Sue Larson <
salarson83 at gmail.com>, Lora Lucero <loralucero3 at gmail.com>, Daniela Brod <
dbrod1571 at gmail.com>, Diz (Linda) Swift <dismoreswift at att.net>, Lwvus Cc Gg
<lwvus-climate-change at googlegroups.com>


Another take.

It's not good or bad - it is both and those negatives need to be called out
not hidden.
First is that most of the negative climate aspects are focused on
environmental justice communities - again.
The rich(er) community gets to fix (some of ) the climate situation before
it disrupts anymore business activity or destroy any more property.
Poor communities have been living with the other effect of buring fossil
fuels, pollution, for a very long time.

Second, the expansion of the Q45 tax credit for carbon capure may undo
everything else that is being done.
We have a new coal fired power plant in my state (Illinois - the Prairie
State coal plant) that is the 7th largest emitter of CO2 in the nation.
They now plan to add CCS to the coal plant.
At $85/Ton for CO2 captured times 6-16 million tons/year = $500 million to
$1 billion/year.
If and when it is operating, it will save 90-95% of the new CO2 they are
creating. Not all of it. And certainly not taking any out of the atmospher
that is already there. We are already late. And this will make it worse,
not better.
And co-pollutants.
And natural gas and ethanol are on board too. All of this in Illinois.
This will block new renewables in the market and they will use the profits
to block it in the legislature.

The political situation is what it is, but it is not benign.
This may be the best we could hope for. But it needs a temper.
If we had been in a car wreck and half our children lived, we would
celebrate that.
But we would not forget, we should not forget what has been lost.

Thank you,
Bill Koehl
LWVIL
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