Legislative Blog
J.B. Williams, J.D.
Clean Energy, including Electric Vehicles
A Blog about Invest in America 2021
A Bit of Background
The following backgrounds help summarize the author's views on both the general topic: Federal and more specifically Invest in America 2021 as it relates to that topic.
Brief Summary of Federal
This should be a fairly limited bills area for management the overall structures like highways, military, federal buildings, federal laws, and the like. However it has become the micro manager of all micro managers. They get involved in areas that no federal government should be involved in, and shift more power upward. This has led to each party trying to run over the other party in the eyes of the voters, all the while doing everything possible to maintain their power. They do this by holding onto all of the money, and claiming they know best how it should be spent. But they run debts so badly that no one should be looking to them as an example of anything other than the way to overspend and go further into debt.
Summary of Invest in America 2021
Expanding infrastructure and including the federal government in state decisions.
Blog Summary
They focus on climate impacted communities, low income communities, and tribal communities. The more we turn to a higher and higher source to take care of the less fortunate, the less the individual sees as being responsible. It becomes it is someone else's job to take care of those rather than being yours because they are near you. I'm not sure which came first, the putting off to the cities, then state, than federal government; or did they start taking more control over things and it led to the individual no longer thinking they were necessary to the solution.
And this is where the government wants to create a green trust. This trust will decide what entities are worthy of getting the funding it has. They say it is a private entity but the reality is the government is setting it up and choosing some of the first people running it. So it's not really a separate entity but that should make it that much more difficult for anyone to get information from them. And years from now, people won't remember that this is really the federal government in disguise. That way if things go badly, the government can say it wasn't us. If they go well, they will of course claim they provided guidance.
Clean Energy, including Electric Vehicles
Published: 2021-12-10
Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program - Division J
Tag line here is Making Outdoors for Everyone. Seems that any time the federal government coins a phrase that sounds appealing, it will inevitably screw it up more than imaginable. For instance, No Child Left Behind. It sounds wonderful and very caring. It's implementation has been much less positive. Instead of additional assistance to ensure the children were learning, it became a pass them no matter what. Now we have children graduating from high school that are not reading at the sixth grade reading level. Instead of smaller groups working at the same level, we've pulled down those in the top or middle to the lowest common denominator.
They will make grants for entities to acquire land and water for parks and outdoor recreation in urban areas, while renovating existing areas as well. The funds must be matched 100% by the entity. There is not a lot here so I'm sure the regulations written will add to this significantly. While it's great for places to have outdoor areas, I do not think this is an area where the federal government should be involved at all. This is something that should be left up to states, counties, cities, etc. This would permit those in an area to choose to spend their funds making something that they desire, while another similar area may choose to spend their funds differently.
Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program - Division J
Tag line here is Making Outdoors for Everyone. Seems that any time the federal government coins a phrase that sounds appealing, it will inevitably screw it up more than imaginable. For instance, No Child Left Behind. It sounds wonderful and very caring. It's implementation has been much less positive. Instead of additional assistance to ensure the children were learning, it became a pass them no matter what. Now we have children graduating from high school that are not reading at the sixth grade reading level. Instead of smaller groups working at the same level, we've pulled down those in the top or middle to the lowest common denominator.
They will make grants for entities to acquire land and water for parks and outdoor recreation in urban areas, while renovating existing areas as well. The funds must be matched 100% by the entity. There is not a lot here so I'm sure the regulations written will add to this significantly. While it's great for places to have outdoor areas, I do not think this is an area where the federal government should be involved at all. This is something that should be left up to states, counties, cities, etc. This would permit those in an area to choose to spend their funds making something that they desire, while another similar area may choose to spend their funds differently.
Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act of 2021- Division K
They want to look at habitats that is occupied at any time during the life cycle of a native species; and that is necessary for spawning, breeding, growth to maturity, or migration. Native species is a bit of an oddity because how far back does the species have to have been there for it to be considered native. Things move and change, it's normal. Extinctions have always been a natural part of history. More than 99% of the four billion species that have evolved are now gone. At least 900 species have gone extinct in the last 500 years. There have been 5 mass extinctions events in Earth's history that we are aware of.
So to protect the natural environment they want to do over and under passes to allow migratory passage of species. Not sure if this is being limited to just federal highways and lands, but if not it should be. Also while I like the idea of protecting species from human devices, I'm not sure that this is not something that should be better left to doing when an upgrade or modification of the existing roadway is necessary. Mostly because, although Congress generally does act like it, we do have a limited amount of funds available.
Community Resilience and Restoration Fund - Division L
This fund is meant to address communities when responding and adapting to natural threats, including climate change. And it is mean to protect and enhance the biodiversity of wildlife populations. And there is a built in report back every 5 years to show the actual changes, including but not limited to, climate resilience or mitigation and biodiversity. They are concerned about invasive species and wildfire threat reduction. Interestingly they are looking at controlled burns, perhaps they need to revert back to a time when we were doing some logging to assist in forest management.
Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator - Division M
Climate-impacted communities are defines as:
- communities of color, which include any geographically distinct are the population of color of which is higher than the average population of color of the State in which the community is located (not sure how this actually makes sense);
- communities that are already or are likely to be the first communities to feel the direct negative effects of climate change (a I'll know it when I see it thing. so this will be interpreted differently by different individuals and it will change over time);
- distressed neighborhoods,demonstrated by indicators of need, including poverty, childhood obesity rates, academic failure, and rates of juvenile delinquency, adjudication, or incarceration;
- The American Diabetes Association reports that greater obesity tracks with greater wealth in other countries but in the US it tracks to lower income. This is the opposite of how it was in the past, as it use to be the wealthier people were more likely to be obese. The claim is often made that this is because higher calorie foods are less expensive. While this may be true when you look at pre-prepared foods or fast foods, it is not true for groceries overall. You can get food that is better for you if you purchase foods that are not pre-prepared. Interestingly a lot of pre-prepared foods are higher in calorie and may be less healthy. But we as a nation go for the least effort foods because we can and they are more convenient.
- low-income communities, defined as any census block group in which 30 percent or more of the population are individuals with low income;
- low income households focus on poverty levels of 200 percent of poverty for 80% of the community;
- tribal communities;
- persistent poverty counties;
- communities disproportionately affected by environmental pollution and other hazards;
- communities that are economically reliant on fossible fuel-based industries.
This is really an attempt to convert infrastructure to rely on electric rather than fossil fuels. Honestly even after all of these years, majority of the power is created by using fossil fuels. Nuclear power would be much greener but it is not overly backed by the fossil fuel industry. At least it is not backed the way wind and solar are. Fossil fuels are used in the production of wind mills and solar panels. The fossil fuel industry pays to advertise these things. However storing solar and wind power is costly, the batteries use a limited resource (which we heavily rely upon China for) and are not being fully recycled. No storage for solar means no power without sun. No storage for windmills means no power with no wind. There is always energy loss during the storage and transporting. Wind and solar account for only a small percentage of the power being produced even after all this time. As stated in this blog previously they are not highly efficient either.
The good news is the government wants to create a green trust. And they are moving toward government control of all energy. Some of you may remember back when telephones were a government controlled monopoly. The cost of long distance was extremely high, and the base cost of having a phone for local calls was significant. Once it was turned private and forced to divest, prices began dropping extremely fast. As they create more and more regulations they are approaching creating monopolies. They create more issues with companies ability to remain in the market.
Renewable energy includes solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, ocean and hydrokinetic, and fuel cell. A nonprofit corporation to be known as Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator. It is suppose to be independent of the government but I imagine it will be heavily supplemented, and therefore it will just be a so-called private entity that speaks just like the government. How you know it will be heavily subsidized is their first task is to begin financing greenhouse gas emissions mitigation efforts. So they will become the financier to states, territories, or green banks. They can call them a not for profit separate entity but all that means is the government does not need to disclose everything they would have to if it were government. This makes it more difficult to request information regarding how the funds are spent. It also allows the entity to not back industries that the particular government in charge chooses to view as not green. (This is similar to an entity that has been, and continues to, collect psychological data on children in schools without getting the parents permission. In this case, rather than calling it a separate entity, the schools have chosen to claim it is merely extension of the school. Realistically it is not but they are doing it, and it will take winning a lawsuit to change it.)
The Accelerator will ensure that green banks exist everywhere, moving the money one step further away from the ease of tracking it. The government can have more control over who gets these funds. They will offer low or zero interest loans for up to 30 years. Even if these funds are being paid back, a zero interest loan nets you no additional funds to loan out again. A low interest loan does not keep up with inflation. Either way the funds returned will provide less and less ability to loan funds, unless it continues to receive additional funding. The initial board will be appointed by the President. The board will have a rolling term expiration so that those remaining on the board will appoint the individuals to replace the individuals whose term is expiring. Their funding wil be $50 billion initially and $10 billion each October 1 thereafter for the next 5 years. It is chartered for 30 years, but it either needs to be extended once they make loans into year 2 or later, otherwise the last portion of the loan doesn't need to be paid back. And the inspector generaly of the Department of Energy shall have oversight, but not the government.
Domestic Maritime Workforce Training - Division N
The need to start funding the maritime workforce within the secondary education system. They use these workers to supplement the areas of critical infrastructure. These include the chemical sector, commercial facilities sector, communications sector, critical manufacturing sector, dams sector, defense industrial base sector, emergency services sector, energy sector, financial services sector, food and agriculture sector, government facilities sector, healthcare and public health sector, information technology sector, and waste/ wastewater systems sector. Seems like they covered anything that might remotely have a means of claiming a national emergency for. That way they can take over an area and fill it with people they have trained.
Efficient and Effective NEPA Implementation - Division O
They are establishing the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality and appropriate $150 million for 2023 through 2031. And the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) is being revitalized. The funding for NEPA will begin in 2026. It seems this entity will not merely advise congress where funding is needed but will appropriate the funding. If they are just funded based upon what they say is required, the oversight seems less than ideal here. But as is typical with climate change now, all that matters is that we keep warming under 3 degrees because otherwise... But don't worry about the fact that China can continue to increase the usage of coal until 2030, and then the acceleration must go more slowly. And we previously, while not part of the Paris Climate Accord, lowered our emissions more than what we have previously said we would. That is based upon the Paris Climate Accord Report.
Electric Vehicles - Division P
Apparently they are looking at a community in which climate change, pollution, or environmental destruction have exacerbated systemic racial, regional, social, environmental, and economic injustices by disproportionately affecting indigenous peoples, communities of color, migrant communities, deindustrialized communities, depopulated rural communities, the poor, low-income workers, women, the elderly, the unhoused, people with disabilities, or youth. So it's not all about climate change but includes systemic racism.
DC fast charging is getting the largest rebates here. Sadly frequent DC fast charging also reduces the life of the battery more quickly. It's about 4% faster. And they want to provide support to entities providing charging stations such that everyone gets to support the building of charging stations. Something they did not due for gas stations and should not be necessary for charging stations. And the fact that charging stations are already available means that they at least do not require more subsidies. I'm not sure they are not already being subsidized.
They also want to go to a zero emissions federal fleet. But currently for heavy duty electric vehicles there is not a 1 to 1 replacement ratio. So for every heavy duty combustion engine you will need more than 1 electric replacement. Creating a worse driver shortage than is claimed to currently exist. And have I mentioned that electric vehicles outweigh their combustion engine counterparts. This additional weight will cause more damage to roadways, meaning they will need more maintenance not less. I doubt anyone has weighed this into a determination of whether electric vehicles are actually environmentally better. I'm also confused about charging stations in neighborhoods. I would think people would want to charge their vehicle at their own home. But maybe the idea is you can charge it for free at a charging station in your neighborhood. So will this be something everyone in that neighborhood pays for or is this going to be a general taxpayer expense. I know some people in a city here thought a downtown area should provide charging stations in downtown for employees at no cost to the employees. I found this very amusing since you cannot even park for free in large downtown areas but they wanted to charge their vehicle for free.
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