The End of the Green New Deal? – CleanTechnica

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The Biden era is over, and the second Trump era is here. While most of the talk about a “Green New Deal” came several years ago, and there’s been no specific “Green New Deal” legislation that has been passed or close to it, two big pieces of legislation that were passed in the first two years of the Biden administration when Democrats had control of the House and the Senate were effectively the Green New Deal. Those were the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.

To wrap up their time in office, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm highlighted some of the great accomplishments of this Green New Deal duo. “President Biden came into office with a vision: to create an American economy built by American workers and fueled by homegrown clean energy. That vision has become an inexorable reality with nearly 1,000 new or expanded factories coming to the U.S. in just four years. Thousands of communities across the nation are reaping the benefits that clean energy offers including cheaper power for homes and businesses along with resilient infrastructure in the face of extreme weather events,” Granholm said.

And then here are some of the key stats:

1. 99% of DOE BIL and IRA grant provisions have made at least one round of commitments.

   • 82 of the 83 BIL and IRA grant provisions made at least one round of selections

2. DOE has committed over $170B for grants and loans through funding made available by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.

3. That means DOE has committed 82% of the grant funds available through the BIL/IRA appropriations, of which:

   • 94% of DOE IRA dollars has been committed to projects, states and relevant entities.
   • 70% of DOE BIL dollars have been committed to projects, states and relevant entities to date.
     • Grants: $64.2 billion in grant dollars have been committed to projects across the country.
     • Loans: $107.5 billion for loans.

So, one impressive thing here is just how much the Biden-Harris admin got things in order and got funding deployed for an enormous number of projects and programs. The Green New Deal is rolling. Historic reshoring of manufacturing is underway, especially related to clean energy and electric vehicles.

“For more information on projects and investments, visit Building America’s Clean Energy Future investment map data and state-by-state factsheets which are available to download at energy.gov/invest. The DOE’s map shows how the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law have driven over:

• $230 billion in announced energy manufacturing investments
• 920 new or expanded energy manufacturing plants
• 200,000 potential new clean energy jobs.”

The question now is: what happens from here? With Donald Trump taking office again, the good news is that he can’t claw back deployed funds (as far as I understand it). Will the incoming administration deploy any more funds? Will they follow through with what was passed, preside over the blooming over many of these projects and programs, and then just claim credit for it all? That’s one definite possibility.

The other major possibility is that everything just stalls — the administration stops implementing what was passed in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act and stops deploying funds. While that would be a shame, and would be worse for the US economy and US middle class, at least the Biden-Harris administration worked rapidly and implemented so much.

Of course, there’s a slim chance Trump and Republicans extend what was started with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Hahaha — never mind. That’s not going to happen! lol

So, is this the end of the Green New Deal era? No. Since most of the projects and programs are just barely seeded, we will have years to come of the aforementioned blooming, the fruits of all of this, and countless long-term ramifications. However, as far as new green policies, well, I think we can forget about that.