The Inflation Reduction Act included $65 million in research grants for low emission aviation and $245 million in development of biofuel based Sustainable Aviation Fuel (aka SAF). And the $3 billion in loan guarantees for manufacturing advanced vehicle technologies included certain aircraft.

There were also $5 billion in loan guarantees for shutting down our heaviest polluting power plants or retooling them to greener generation methods.

There was $3 billion in buying zero emissions vehicles and charging infrastructure for the postal service.

The Inflation Reduction Act, which inherited a lot of the stuff from the Green New Deal, was a lot of things, and I don't think I've ever heard it called deeply unserious before today.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

The point about aviation is that we need to reduce the need for flights. Short flights, especially those that are under 600 miles over land, are prime to be replaced by high speed rail.

No amount of SAF is going to make the short flights less polluting than a robust high speed rail system between those city pairs.

Also, you called the IRA deeply unserious, not me. I called Biden’s tariffs against Chinese renewables and EVs deeply unserious because they are.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Yeah, the IRA and Infrastructure Bill steer about $67 billion to railways, $80 billion to transit systems. And even though a lot of the other spending goes towards the status quo of car-based passenger transportation, electrifying that will go a long way towards reducing carbon emissions.

And there are some more ambitious ideas baked in, too: redesigning cities to require less car infrastructure and overall energy use, etc.

I thought it was a big deal when passed and honestly can't understand why people who care about climate don't acknowledge just how big of a deal it was (and how devastating that so much of the money authorized will now be in control of a Trump administration).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Fixing the environment means pushing back against the profit motive of corporations. You can't fix the climate and stay friendly with big polluters. What the dems are doing are half-measures that will still see our future ruined because they refuse to go against their corporate donors