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Politics

The Inflation Reduction Act Turns 2

On the climate law’s anniversary, sodium-ion batteries, and hazy skies

The Inflation Reduction Act Turns 2
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: A large wildfire is burning out of control in Izmir, Turkey • Typhoon Ampil has prompted thousands of evacuation orders in Japan • The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed that last month was the hottest July ever recorded.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Democrats commemorate IRA anniversary with Harris-Walz climate fundraiser

Today marks the two-year anniversary of the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden’s signature climate legislation. To commemorate the event, the Democratic National Committee is hosting a virtual fundraiser for the Harris-Walz presidential campaign at 3pm EDT. The “Climate Voters for Harris Kickoff Call” will highlight the IRA’s accomplishments, and feature comments from former climate envoy John Kerry, Jane Fonda, educator Bill Nye (The Science Guy), and other guests. VP Harris herself will be busy today giving her first major policy speech in North Carolina. She reportedly plans to call for the construction of 3 million new housing units during her first term, a move Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer applauds. After all, he says, housing policy is a climate policy issue: “If America hopes to reach net-zero by 2050, then one of the easiest and cheapest ways for it to do so will be to build more housing, especially in cities and transit-connected suburbs.”

2. East Coast skies darkened by Canadian wildfire smoke

Hazy skies have returned to the East Coast as Canadian wildfire smoke drifts across the country. Air quality has been affected in cities including New York, Baltimore, Boston, D.C., and Philadelphia. The smoke is expected to linger today but could disappear this weekend with the arrival of rain.

X/NWSNewYorkNY and EarthCam

Climate change is making wildfires more frequent and more destructive. There are nearly 900 fires burning in Canada right now, many of which remain out of control, as illustrated below by the red and purple dots:

Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre

3. First U.S. sodium-ion battery gigafactory coming to North Carolina

Leading sodium-ion battery startup Natron Energy announced yesterday it is building a massive $1.4 billion manufacturing plant in North Carolina. Natron already has a facility in Michigan, which is the only commercial scale sodium-ion battery plant in the country. Its new operation will be the first sodium-ion battery gigafactory in the U.S., capable of producing 24GW of batteries every year and representing a 40-times scaling up of production. The factory will create 1,000 clean energy jobs. As Heatmap’s Katie Brigham explained, sodium-ion technology “performs roughly the same as lithium-ion in energy storage systems,” but is far more abundant in the U.S. than lithium, cheaper, and also appears less likely to catch fire than lithium-ion. Research and consulting firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence expects to see a 350% jump in announced sodium-ion battery manufacturing capacity this year alone. And while the supply of these batteries is only in the tens of gigawatts today, Benchmark forecasts that it will be in the hundreds of gigawatts by 2030.

4. Orsted delays Revolution Wind project

Danish renewable energy company Orsted, the world’s largest offshore wind developer, announced yesterday it is pushing back the launch of its Revolution Wind project, located off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut. The project is now expected to start commercial operations in 2026 instead of 2025. The construction delay will cost Orsted $472 million. The company also abandoned its plan to develop green fuels for various industries including shipping and aviation, even though it had already begun construction on the plant. In total, Orsted recorded $575 million in impairment losses in the second quarter of this year.

5. Carbon Mapper methane satellite set for launch today

Yet another methane satellite is launching into orbit today, as early as 11:19 a.m. Pacific time, on a SpaceX rocket. Developed by a coalition of public and private partners and led by the nonprofit Carbon Mapper, the Tanager-1 satellite’s precision imaging helps fill a gap in the methane detection universe and complements the abilities of MethaneSAT, the Environmental Defense Fund-developed, Google-backed satellite launched back in March. “While MethaneSAT can detect the total emissions emanating from a particular basin, state, or country, Carbon Mapper can zoom in to figure out what’s going on within 50 meters of accuracy so that operators and regulators can be notified,” explained Heatmap’s Katie Brigham. If you want to watch the launch live, you can do so here.

THE KICKER

Tesla is selling a stainless steel cooler for its Cybertruck that can hold 90 canned beverages and “keep perishables cold and ice frozen for days at a time.” It costs $700.

Tesla

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Ideas

The GOP Megabill Is Playing Right Into China’s Hands

Two former Department of Energy staffers argue from experience that severe foreign entity restrictions aren’t the way to reshore America’s clean energy supply chain.

Xi Jinping and solar panels.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The latest version of Congress’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” claims to be tough on China. Instead, it penalizes American energy developers and hands China the keys to dominate 21st century energy supply chains and energy-intensive industries like AI.

Republicans are on the verge of enacting a convoluted maze of “foreign entity” restrictions and penalties on U.S. manufacturers and energy companies in the name of excising China from U.S. energy supply chains. We share this goal to end U.S. reliance on Chinese minerals and manufacturing. While at the U.S. Department of Energy and the White House, we worked on numerous efforts to combat China’s grip on energy supply chains. That included developing tough, nuanced and, importantly, workable rules to restrict tax credit eligibility for electric vehicles made using materials from China or Chinese entities — rules that quickly began to shift supply chains away from China and toward the U.S. and our allies.

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Politics

AM Briefing: Let the Vote-a-Rama Begin

On taxing renewables, climate finance, and Europe’s heat wave

Where Things Stand with the GOP’s Megabill
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Parts of Northern California are under red flag warnings as warm air meets whipping winds • China’s southwestern Guizhou province is flooded for the second time in a week • A potential bomb cyclone is taking aim at Australia’s east coast.

THE TOP FIVE

1. The Senate GOP’s new tax on renewables could kill the industry

Late on Friday Senate Republicans added a new tax on solar and wind projects to the budget reconciliation megabill that sent many in the industry into full-blown crisis mode. The proposal would levy a first-of-its-kind penalty on all solar and wind projects tied to the quantity of materials they source from companies with ties to China or other countries designated as adversaries by the U.S. government. “Taken together with other factors both in the bill and not, including permitting timelines and Trump’s tariffs, this tax could indefinitely undermine renewables development in America,” wrote Heatmap’s Jael Holzman. Here are a few reactions from politicians and industry insiders:

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Politics

How the Senate GOP’s New Tax on Renewables Could ‘Kill’ the Industry

As bad as previous drafts of the reconciliation bill have been, this one is worse.

The Capitol and John Thune.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Senate Republicans are in the final stages of passing their budget reconciliation megabill — which suddenly includes a new tax on solar and wind projects that has sent many in the industry into full-blown crisis mode.

The proposed tax was tucked inside the latest text of the Senate reconciliation bill, released late Friday night, and would levy a first-of-its-kind penalty on all solar and wind projects tied to the quantity of materials they source from companies with ties to China or other countries designated as adversaries by the U.S. government. Industry representatives are still processing the legislative language, but some fear it would kick in for certain developers as soon as the date of its enactment. Taken together with other factors both in the bill and not, including permitting timelines and Trump’s tariffs, this tax could indefinitely undermine renewables development in America.

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Green