Dear Friends,
Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, joins me this week to discuss the economic costs of climate change, a school board’s decision to ban reporters from a public meeting, and the protests against US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Randy Evans, executive director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council
During our Farm & Food segment, Kathy and I discuss the history of the Iowa State Fair’s iconic Butter Cow, including that memorable event in 2013 when animal-rights extremists vandalized the display.
A topic that Randy and I touch on briefly is whether the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (read “Climate Bill”) is helpful or a step backward in the fight against climate change. That’s a historically important question. Personally, I have yet to come to a firm conclusion. Most of what you hear in the mainstream media and on social media is glowingly positive. I’m not there yet.
There’s an excellent article in The Guardian this week, giving voice to some of the countervailing viewpoints on the Climate Bill. It’s titled “Landmark US climate bill will do more harm than good, groups say.” I highly recommend you read it, and I’d greatly appreciate your feedback.
Some of the article’s highlights:
[T]he bill makes a slew of concessions to the fossil fuel industry, including mandating drilling and pipeline deals that will harm communities from Alaska to Appalachia and the Gulf coast and tie the US to planet-heating energy projects for decades to come.
Siqiniq Maupin, executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, said: “This new bill is genocide, there is no other way to put it. This is a life or death situation and the longer we act as though the world isn’t on fire around us, the worse our burns will be. Biden has the power to prevent this, to mitigate the damage.”
“Solving the climate crisis requires eliminating fossil fuels, and the Inflation Reduction Act simply does not do this,” said Steven Feit, senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law.
“This was a backdoor take-it-or-leave-it deal between a coal baron and Democratic leaders in which any opposition from lawmakers or frontline communities was quashed. It was an inherently unjust process, a deal which sacrifices so many communities and doesn’t get us anywhere near where we need to go, yet is being presented as a savior legislation,” said Jean Su, energy justice program director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The spending package will expedite expansion of the clean energy industry, and while it includes historic funds to tackle air pollution and help consumers go green through electric vehicle and household appliance subsidies, the vast majority of the funds will benefit corporations. [emphasis mine]
A cost-benefit analysis by the Climate Justice Alliance, which represents a wide range of urban and rural groups nationwide, concludes that the strengths of the IRA are outweighed by the bill’s weaknesses and threats posed by the expansion of fossil fuels and unproven technologies such as carbon capture and hydrogen generation – which the bill will incentivize with billions of dollars of tax credits that will mostly benefit oil and gas.
What are your thoughts? Good bill? Bad bill? Too early to tell? (That’s where I’ve landed, for now.)
Thanks for reading, listening, and caring about our planet and our future. — Ed Fallon
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LISTEN to Randy Evans and Ed discuss:
(01:15) It’s cheaper to prevent climate catastrophes than to clean up the mess;
(20:11) An Iowa school board bans reporters from attending a public meeting;
(37:38) The right to free speech vs the right to privacy: What’s up, Judge Kavanaugh?
(54:00) Farm & Food, with Kathy Byrnes: A brief history of the Iowa State Fair Butter Cow.
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Ed Fallon