NY-GEO Joins Call for EPA to List Heating Appliances as Pollution Source – NY-GEO joined the Sierra Club and 24 other organizations on a petition calling for the EPA to set pollution standards for heating appliances, and “designating electric heat pumps as the best system of emission reduction”. The petition stated “The data is incontrovertible: heating appliances in residential and commercial buildings contribute significantly to pollution that endangers public health and welfare. The emissions from these sources are major drivers of the dual crises of climate change and unclean air and, with respect to NOx and CO2, are substantially greater than emissions of other source categories that have been regulated under section 111(b) for years or decades. The agency must, therefore, list heating appliances as a source category under section 111(b)(1)(A)” Press release providing a quick summary here.

Money for State Energy Offices – David Smedick email – RMI – “DOE has released its long-awaited funding allocations and application guidance to states for the Infrastructure Act’s $425 million injection into the State Energy Program (SEP). These are funds that are delivered down to state energy offices for a wide variety of potential projects and investments and can include building retrofits among many other uses in the energy sector.  Check out DOE’s landing page for the allocation documents and application instructions here.  If you want a direct link to the $$ allocation amounts per state, see here. These funds are for a 5-year period for each state and the state applications, developed by the relevant energy office in each state, are due back to DOE on November 4, 2022.” New York is scheduled for $17, 323,790.

Hydrogen: Wrong Side of History?- Wake up to the hype around green hydrogen for heating – Richard Lowes and David Cebon – Recharge – “No colour of H2 makes sense to decarbonise heating, and pretending otherwise risks delaying urgent action to slash emissions… The proponents of unchecked hydrogen use are on the wrong side of the evidence, and history. They ended up there because of money — or more specifically, sunk assets, which are now under threat as the world attempts to move away from fossil fuels and its associated infrastructure.  Thanks for this tip to Sage Welch Chloe Zilliac, Peter Jensen at the National Building Electrification Network and Sunstone Strategies.  Note – “AC” in the diagram below refers to alternating current, not air conditioning.  Full article here.

More on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022:

Recent Federal Resources on the IRA:

1.      White House STATE FACT SHEETS: How the Inflation Reduction Act Lowers Energy Costs, Creates Jobs, and Tackles Climate Change Across America

2.      White House FACT SHEET: The Inflation Reduction Act Supports Workers and Families

3.      White House FACT SHEET: How the Inflation Reduction Act Helps Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Communities

4.      White House FACT SHEET: How the Inflation Reduction Act Helps Tribal Communities

5.      White House FACT SHEET: Inflation Reduction Act Advances Environmental Justice

6.      White House FACT SHEET: How the Inflation Reduction Act Helps Black Communities

7.      White House FACT SHEET: How the Inflation Reduction Act Helps Latino Communities

8.      White House BY THE NUMBERS: The Inflation Reduction Act

9.      DOE Projects Monumental Emissions Reduction From Inflation Reduction Act

10.  DOE Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 – What it Means for You

Thanks to Jamal Lewis at Rewiring America for this list.

How Much Money Can You Save Under the New Climate Law? – Rewiring America CEO Ari Matusiak breaks down the discounts, credits and incentives available to homeowners in the Inflation Reduction Act. “So, where we need to go from a climate perspective is to electrify what amounts to a billion machines across the 121 million households that people rely on to get to and from work, heat the air and water in their homes, cook their food and dry their clothes. And as we transition those machines from fossil fuel to efficient electricity, we will be changing the format of the American household to an electric format. That will lock in savings year-over-year for people and generate the largest transfer of wealth away from energy producers and back to American families in the history of the United States.” Full article/interview here.